Nabi appointment is an admission of a year wasted at Kaizer Chiefs

While Kaizer Chiefs have yet, at the time of writing, to come out officially to say Nasreddine Nabi is their new head coach, it is as safe a bet as any right now that the 58 year-old Tunisian will be in charge at Naturena next season.

Chiefs flirted with Nabi last season, without sealing the deal, and their decision to return to him for the new campaign is, frankly, an admission of a wasted year.

Whether it was Nabi’s wage demands, or a row over backroom staff that stopped Nabi from coming to Chiefs last season, the decision to go with Molefi Ntseki blew up in their faces, with the former Bafana coach sacked by October and Amakhosi ending up in tenth place in the DStv Premiership, and without a trophy for the ninth Premier Soccer League season in a row.

Chiefs’ woes have undoubtedly put Nabi in a better bargaining position, and it looks like he will now be able to bring his backroom staff, with Chiefs’ management hoping the well-travelled coach and his entourage can provide the magic ingredient to lead back towards the top of the domestic game.

There is no exact science in football management, of course, and no guarantee Nabi will work out at Chiefs. He has a good reputation on the continent, winning back to back Tanzanian league titles at Young Africans, and this season at FAR Rabat finishing just a point behind Raja Casablanca in the Moroccan top flight.

A different landscape

But this will be his first season coaching in the entirely different landscape of the Premier Soccer League, where Mamelodi Sundowns are so utterly dominant.

Can Nabi succeed where so many competent coaches have failed before him, and turn Chiefs into a trophy-winning force once more? Does he really have the squad to compete, and if not, will Chiefs back him in the transfer market?

Will he be given the time he will undoubtedly need to build a side at Chiefs, with a support base starved of success and not afraid of showing their anger when it has gone wrong under previous head coaches?

In truth, no one can really say, but this does have the look of a near-impossible job. Good luck, Mr Nabi.