Zwane breaks silence on working relationship with ex-Chiefs coach Baxter

When Arthur Zwane first took over after Gavin Hunt was fired at Kaizer Chiefs, there was no break in performances as he took the side to the Caf Champions League and into the top eight.

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It was a rather smooth transition. But this time around Zwane has hit some turbulence early into his second stint as a stand-in coach. 

When it was put to him that the smooth transition from Hunt was because he had a close relationship with him and was part of almost all the decision making and that this time he didn’t have the same cordial relationship with Stuart Baxter, Zwane refuted this.  

“Look, we were close with coach Hunt. I was close with coach Stuart,” said Zwane on Thursday. “And unfortunately for both coaches the results were not forthcoming and the club decided that maybe, you know, for continuity at that moment I should help. 

“For me, it is not because of what the coaches wanted to do or what I didn’t want them to do. It is when you see that, ‘okay we have players and we have been trying to do this and we all agreed on it, but things are not happening’ that you realise that surely the situation needs to change. 

“We tried everything to help the players, to make sure that we grind the results and get positive results with both coach Gavin and coach Stuart. But they were not coming. The performance was also a little bit of a worrying factor.

“Individual performances and collectively as a team… And, uh, what we are doing right now is not that we are changing completely (from what Baxter was doing). What we feel… we are taking over at the time when the games are coming thick and fast. 

“Since we started we have had games back-to-back and these other players who have been playing – we have players who played close to 80% of the games while others didn’t play regularly.” 

Zwane says they are now giving every player a chance so that when the club assesses the season and where to fortify, all players will have had a fair chance. 

“So, we feel they deserve a fair share to showcase their talent and feel like a part of the team and so we can see what they have got. We brought them here to play. And not because coach Stuart was not playing them or anything. But because we feel we need to try and bring everyone on board and try and see where we are in terms of playing personnel. 

“Going forward, then we can identify who we want to bring when we want to beef up the squad. It would be pointless to beef up when we have players who have not been given an opportunity to play. So, I think if we can try and balance the scale when it comes to that, when the season comes to an end and the club decides to release some players, at least they would have been given a fair chance.”