Local Soccer

Richards Bay coach hoping for contract extension

Shortly after saving Richards Bay’s DStv Premiership status, Vusumuzi Vilakazi is hoping to extend his contract with the club. The up and coming coach masterminded a 4-0 win over Baroka FC on Wednesday in the last match of the PSL promotion/relegation play-off.

ALSO READ: Vilakazi delighted as Richards Bay survive relegation

The victory was enough to keep the KwaZulu-Natal club in South African topflight football after finishing above AmaTuks and Bakgakga in the three-team league. That was all thanks to a brace by Somila Ntsundwana as well as goals by Sanele Barnes and Lwandile Mabuya.

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Vilakazi, a former striker during his playing days with Golden Arrows revealed after the match that he will sit down with the Natal Rich Boyz chairman Jomo Biyela to map up a way forward following the survival act to remain in the lucrative premier division.

“We still need to sit down with the chairman and talk because obviously my contract has ended,” he said.

“But we will sit down and see because he did say in a statement that ‘if it’s not broken then why fix it’ but that will depend on the talks and negotiations that we have with him to try and align in terms of the personnel we can bring in and who we can release.”

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Kanu, as the former lanky forward was popularly known in his playing days, is already thinking about next season. Bay will be hoping for a better showing in the upcoming campaign after fighting relegation for the majority of the 2023-2024 season.

“The fact that I will have pre-season with the team, the philosophy that I have and the identity that I want this team to have means I’ll have time to work on that,” he concluded.

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“I must be honest that during these games, we were forced to play in a certain manner in order to survive but this is not the football that I would prefer and it can be a lot better than it is. It will make things easier in terms of having pre-season with the players and making sure that they buy into the ideas and we will play very interesting football.”