Leopards in a coach shuffle

SHORTLY after they recovered from their poor start to the current season, Black Leopards have sacked their two assistant coaches, Solly Luvhengo and Ashwin Sutton.

The duo, who joined Lidoda Duvha six weeks ago, have since been replaced by former Leopards goalkeeper, Joel Masutha, while the club’s captain, Mongezi Bobe, will double up as an assistant coach.

All this while the club’s new head coach, Sean Connor, is in his home country, Ireland, in an effort to obtain a valid work permit.

Masutha took the hot seat with aplomb and secured back to back 2-0 victories over rivals Baroka FC and Vasco da Gama.

This sudden change of fortune has fuelled reports that Masutha will graduate from caretaker coach to head coach, replacing Connor before the Irishman could sit on the bench, but Leopards’ spokesperson, Barry Ramunenyiwa poured cold water on these reports, labelling them “pure speculation”.

Masutha started his coaching career at Lidoda Duvha in 2008 and last season he worked closely with coach Kosta Papic when Leopards missed the chance of promotion to the PSL by a whisker.

He left the club at the beginning of the current season and joined PSL club, Chippa United with Papic. The duo left Chippa a month ago for Polokwane City FC and Masutha’s merry-go-round continued when he was head hunted by Leopards management to rescue the club’s sinking ship.

Masutha said he was happy to come back home and help the team.

He said kicking off his stint with back to back victories was the start he hoped for.

“The players believe in me and that is very important in football. I worked with these players last season and we won many matches.

“I introduced the philosophy we used last season and that is what our players understand,” said Masutha.

Asked if he was ready to take over the hot-seat, Masutha said he did not care what he was called, as long as he was doing what he was supposed to do.

“Whether I am called caretaker coach, assistant coach or head coach, as long as the word ‘coach’ is in there, I am happy to do what I do best,” he said.

Meanwhile, Luvhengo said he carried no hard feelings over his contract termination by Lidoda Duvha.

“I do not have any hard feelings. It is part of football. I was there when there was nobody to prepare the team for the pre-season and I enjoyed the little time I spent with the club,” the former national u/17 coach said.

Lidoda Duvha is not new to firing coaches early in the season. In August 2005, Leopards made history when they fired French coach, Jean-Yves Kerjean, after he coached the club in only one official match.

Leopards will play their next match against Maluti FET at the Thohoyandou Stadium on Saturday.