English coach Sam Allardyce is not one of the most decorated coaches in the world, but he is one of the most straight-talking managers. At West Ham, he was not the best of friends with the club’s hard-to-please supporters.
“I once called the supporters deluded and I stand by that,” he once said.
The supporters were not too impressed and those remarks caused significant controversy among The Hammers faithful.
Jose Mourinho was another maverick coach who was not too shy to call his club’s supporters to order when they acted like bozos.
Back in Mzansi, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos’ love and hate relationship with a section of the South African football supporters, more so, the self-proclaimed social media soccer experts, continues unabated. But Broos has chosen the diplomatic path – the coach has been coached that the cultures between the EPL and South Africa’s PSL are worlds apart – he was gonna be hounded out like a death row prisoner at a nun’s convention if he was to take the same route as Big Sam or The Special One.
To his credit, the Belgian is not only one up against his detractors, he is cruising comfortably ahead of them – without giving a hoot about the criticism.
After all, Broos’ team is on a high and on their way to a rare appearance at the World Cup.
Broos has resuscitated and turned a bunch of losers and no-hopers into a formidable team.
After an impressive 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying campaign, in which they lost via a dubious penalty kick awarded to Ghana in Cape Coast, Broos led Bafana Bafana to a bronze medal at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
After that, he qualified for the next edition (2025) at a canter, with a few matches in hand and without losing a match.
As if that wasn’t enough, he will end Mzansi’s 16-year wait to participate in the World Cup after Bafana qualified for the biggest sporting spectacle in the whole world – to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada in 2026.
But the self-important social media coaches are still not giving Broos any room to breathe. They are still on his case because he has left out their favourite players.
Since Broos’ Dromedaris arrived on our shores in 2021, his line-ups and squad selections have sparked a lot of talking points and outcries.
But the noise has not distracted the coach from pursuing his goal of relaunching Bafana as a powerhouse once again on the continent.
Asked about social media debates, said Broos on iDiskiTimes: “Well, I have to thank you for saying that, because I didn’t know; you know how I feel about social media. I don’t follow it, not at all, I think if I read those things, I would laugh,” Broos said.
“Those are people who suddenly think they are important, and on social media they can say what they want. It’s nonsense, ridiculous, and it doesn’t affect me at all.”
For the friendly international against Zambia yesterday, Broos left out fan favourites such as Relebohile Mofokeng, Patrick “Tito” Maswanganyi, but it was the omission of in-form Thembinkosi Lorch that caused a stinker with some of the fans.
They are demanding that the coach bring back the red-hot Wydad Athletic man back into the Bafana fold. And, you guessed it, Broos is having none of it.
“We are in preparation for Afcon. I have to focus everything on Afcon. That’s why some players are not there,” he said.
Maybe the biggest question the critics must answer is: who should Broos leave out of the squad that fought wars to qualify Bafana for these competitions?
Safa officials would do well to revert to the practice of the national coach speaking only about the players he has selected, thus avoiding debates and exchanges with hotheads and bored journalists.
Let Broos choose his own players; he has earned that right.
