Ex-Pirates star sets a challenge for new Bucs coach

Former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Brighton Mhlongo has posed a challenge to new Buccaneers head coach Jose Riveiro, whose appointment was met with a lot of ooh aah!, with many questioning the club’s decision to rope in another unknown foreign coach. He follows in the footsteps of Kjell Jonevret and Jozef Zinnbauer in recent years.

While Mhlongo does not sound too convinced about the arrival of Riveiro, he urges Pirates fans to give him time and see how he will perform in the early stages of next season.

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It’s not a mistake, they have a vision and they probably want to model the Pirates game to that of Europe’s. Zinnbauer was brought here and he got the team a trophy for the first time after a long time,” said Mhlongo.

“I would say give the local coaches a chance but at the same time there was not much faith in them last season given the performance of the team towards the end of the season. I would have loved to see a coach like Mandla Ncikazi take over because he has done well at Golden Arrows, even at Pirates he did well (with Fadlu Davids) the took the club to the Caf Confederation Cup final and I would have loved to see him take the reins. But let’s see how he will perform in the MTN8 and let’s support the chairman’s decision.

He adds: “What we can do is always trust and believe in the top brass’s decision and let’s wait and see what the new coach will do. Maybe there is something special that they saw in the guy.”