Arthur Zwane: Sinking or cooking at Kaizer Chiefs? 

It was a task that experienced coaches had failed at that was handed to Arthur Zwane at Kaizer Chiefs in July 2022. 

It is the task of awakening a giant that has been asleep for seven years. Chiefs have gone on an unprecedented seven years without a trophy. 

Considering that this is the team who holds the record for most trophies in local professional football, this is disastrous. 

It needs to be curbed soon. The mudslide at Naturena started with Steve Komphela who was the first black coach to be appointed head coach at Chiefs in the modern times. 

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Before his appointment, club chairman Kaizer Motaung had made an alarming statement that no black coach can do well at his club. 

This was an unfortunate statement from Motaung. The appointment of Komphela was a revolution of some sort at Naturena. 

Change of heart

In the three years Komphela was there, he could not win anything. He had inherited a team who had won a double the previous season under Stuart Baxter. 

His mandate, however, was to dismantle what Baxter had built because while the team was winning, it was not playing the ‘Kaizer Chiefs way’.

Komphela didn’t completely dismantle Baxter’s team and that might have cost him. He tried to change the philosophy and playing style using the same players. 

For three years it looked promising at times but never worked. He kept telling the supporters to trust the process but at the end they ran out of patience. 

Komphela had to be escorted by police out of Moses Mabhida Stadium after losing the Nedbank Cup semi finals to Free State Stars in Durban. He quit after that incident. 

Italian tactician Giovanni Solinas was next. He brought a new sense of belief in the team and they played some enterprising football. 

But cracks soon started as senior players started complaining that he was tactically running on empty.  Solinas was fired after just five months on the job. 

The Covid effect

Ernst Middendorp was then roped in for his second stint as beach coach of Chiefs. Some still believe that had it not been for the Covid-19 outbreak that delayed the finishing of the league he would have won it in the 2019/20 season. 

Middendorp’s Chiefs had been leading with a healthy gap when the games were stopped to be restarted three months later in the Bio-Bubble. 

He lost the title to Mamelodi Sundowns on the last day of the season. He was then fired with supporters unhappy with how he lost it and the style of football. 

The club then controversially brought back Baxter. He started on a sour note when he imposed himself on the team for the Caf Champions League final.

The supporters did not like how he took the glory from Zwane, who had been made a stand-in coach at the time. They felt Baxter should have waited for the next season to start his job. 

He was also fieight months later as things could not change for the better. A new era was anticipated when Chiefs hired Gavin Hunt who came with the best record of any other coach before him at Chiefs. 

Hunt had won the league four times – three with SuperSport United and one with Bidvest Wits. Hunt was brave and brought about the required changes in terms of player personnel at Chiefs. 

He was, however, hindered by the club’s transfer ban they were serving at the time and could not bring in the players he had wanted. 

He was brave in releasing some of the old guard and wanted to rebuild the team with new players. A clash of ideas and an unworkable relationship with management led to his early release just eight months into the job. 

‘10111’ the savior

That is when Zwane came in. His introduction was dramatic with the club making a video of him being escorted by the police to come and save the team. 

They played on his ‘10111’ moniker. He said his immediate mandate was to change the direction the team was going under the previous two coaches. 

Baxter and Hunt had apparently not played the ‘Kaizer Chiefs way’. He has had an indifferent start with the team experiencing stops and starts under his guidance. 

Some feel he is out of his depth. One such is former Chiefs star Junior Khanye who does not mince his words in his criticism. 

“I’m glad that I have been proven right on some of the things I said,” Khanye said in an interview recently. 

“I mentioned when the season started that Arthur is inexperienced as a coach for a big club like Chiefs. 

“Scouting would be a suitable position for him, having worked with the club’s juniors and knowing what is needed for a player to play for Chiefs from a young age. 

“Chiefs haven’t won any trophy for more than six years and the expectations are high for the club to win something and you can’t expect an inexperienced coach to achieve that.”

Zwane however remains adamant that he is on the money and cooking something the supporters will like in the end.

“There is always pressure at Kaizer Chiefs – whether you are winning or losing games. But it is part of the game. I am still going to panic. I will keep working hard. God will answer our prayers as well,” said Zwane on Saturday after yet another loss.