Kaizer Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung has revealed the club’s plans during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and for the remainder of the season.
Motaung also revealed that they did not have any interaction with coach Pitso Mosimane, whom the club has been linked with in recent months.
League in recess
The league is in recess with Africa’s most prestigious tournament in full swing in Ivory Coast. Amakhosi have one player at the tournament, Mozambique left-back Edmilson Dove.
Chiefs, who are occupying number six on the PSL log table after 16 matches, have been keeping themselves busy by playing in friendly tournaments.
Motaung spoke to Sunday World at the launch of their new sponsorship with SuperSportBet in Randburg.
“The guys were in camp in Polokwane, and they will be back this week. This is just for the league preparations and to keep the team active. The only player that was not there is Dove. He is in Afcon with his country, Mozambique,” said Motaung.
Players having a good rest
“Others, like defender Thatayaone Ditlhokwe and attacking midfielder George Matlou have injuries and they are recovering. I would say that the players got a good rest. They last played an official fixture on December 31.
“You must remember that they should not stay at home for a long time. We are in the middle of a season, and they need to be kept active. It’s only a month of Afcon. We gave them a three-week break and they are now in camp,” he added.
Motaung also spoke about the future of interim coach Cavin Johnson.
Never engaged Pitso
“The coach (Johnson) is still continuing with his job. We have not spoken to any other coach. About coach Pitso, it was shocking to read about the things we do not know in the media. We have never engaged Pitso, we never interviewed Pitso. Not even a proposal was sent to him. We were surprised to read that Pitso rejected our offer,” he said.
Asked whether they had an interest in Mosimane at all, Bobby said: “We are trying to stabilise the team at the moment. Issues of the coach will be discussed later. If you check, the momentum at the team is good. We do not want to disturb that. Because if we bring a new coach now, it will cause a lot of confusion for us in terms of stability.
Not bringing in a new coach
“Coaches come with their own demands. These demands in the middle of the season can impact badly on the team. For us we are not looking at bringing a coach now. We are just focusing on Cavin Johnson.
“The league is a marathon, and we want to go higher on the log. There’s still the Nedbank Cup which we are looking at. The race is still on. We are looking at climbing up the log and the Nedbank Cup. We are positive about the Nedbank Cup,” he explained further.
