Pirates legend backs Benni to take over as Bucs head coach

Orlando Pirates legend and former assistant coach Teboho Moloi believes Benni McCarthy would be perfectly suited to the Buccaneers head coaching job.

ALSO READ: Has Klate revealed Pirates’ incoming coach?

Moloi coached McCarthy when he joined the Buccaneers as a player in 2011, and helped the side win a secon domestic treble in a row under Dutch coach Ruud Krol.

Pirates currently have Fadlu Davids and Mandla Ncikazi at the helm as interim coaches, and it remains to be seen if they stick with the duo or appoint a new permanent head coach ahead of the new season. The Buccaneers did reach the Confederation Cup final this season, but they lost that and had another disappointing domestic campaign.

Daine Klate was on radio this week saying he would be happy to join McCarthy’s coaching team at Pirates, if the former Cape Town City and AmaZulu head coach was given the job.

“Benni has played for the team and understands the magnitude that comes with wearing the jersey,” said Moloi.

“He has done very well and is one of the best players ever in South Africa. He came in at a time when Pirates really needed to defend the treble, and him and Daine Klate did vbery well.

“For him to get a chance (as coach) he might come up with the right things and the right formula and talk to the players and make them understand what it takes to wear the Pirates jersey. If he is given a chance I can put my head on the block and say he will be the right guy to get the team back to winning ways.

“When I was coaching Benni, I would say to him ‘If we don’t lose …’ and before I could finish my sentence he would say ‘don’t say that, there is no ‘lose’ in my vocabulary.’ He wanted to talk of positivity, no negativity, to say ‘if we win’.

“Benni is a winner and Pirates need people like him, to get the players that in every game when you pull on the jersey you have to be positive you are going to win.”