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Many football lovers wish Chippa United would be relegated once more at the end of the season and not come back to the elite league again. I’m one of them.
The reason?
To teach Chippa Mpengesi a lesson. This week, supporters voiced their anger on social media and showed their dissatisfaction over how he conducted his business.
This was after Mpengesi showed coach Clinton Larsen the exit door five games into the season.
Supporters were angry. This was not the first time the trigger-happy Mpengesi has fired a promising coach.
Mpengesi has created too many enemies and some want to see him fail.
But is this the right call?
It is hard to tell a businessperson how to go about his business. You see, the problem is that he can do whatever he wants with his money.
And I bet if he had to make a decision again, he would not hesitate to make the same one.
That’s how he conducts his business – whether we agree or not – and he doesn’t care.
After all, it is his money and his club. In his mind, he is right and doing a great job.
It’s a miracle that Chippa hasn’t been relegated again after gaining promotion in 2014.
Fact: As a coach, particularly in the PSL, you are just a game away from being sacked. Anyone who joins Chippa is committing career suicide as it is always a question of when, and not if, he’ll be fired.
But Chippa was not the only club to fire a coachthis week.
AmaZulu and Black Leopards also sacked their tacticians. Lionel Soccoia and Cavin Johnson also lasted only five games in the season.
Their results are strikingly similar. Chippa and AmaZulu failed to register a win with their clubs on two and three points, respectively. The Leopards’ coach was the only one with a win in the bottom five.
Many people have disagreed with what has happened to the coaches, but they still seem to regard it as normal and it is accepted by the decision-makers.
At times, I am absolutely baffled at how quickly club owners fire their coaches.
I’m really at a loss when it comes to thinking about why this is standard operating procedure in the league, especially by sides that have low expectations and find it hard to achieve wins.
As much as football clubs live and die by their results, if the owner deems that the results are bad enough to significantly affect the club as a business, only then should they sack their coaches.
But are the coaches the only people to blame for a team’s downfall?
Look at what happened to AmaZulu last season when they were docked six points by Fifa – Johnson had nothing to do with the decision, but he was forced to dig deeper to make sure the club avoided relegation.
No action was taken against the individual who landed the club in hot water.
I am really struggling to understand why club bosses see things differently. I feel like football business is more unforgiving towards coaches.
Are coaches given enough time to turn things around? How much is enough time? Are five games sufficient for coaches to prove their worth?
But who should be blamed for all this?
The thing is, coaches are not united and always have to be aware to see who is back-stabbing them, and club bosses take advantage of these divisions.
It was Augusto Palacios who once said his back was full of holes because of so much back-stabbing.
What he was implying was that coaches cannot trust one another and are jealous of one another.
They actually rejoice when one of their compatriots is sacked. There are many predators who are lurking in the shadows waiting for club bosses to pull the trigger. I’ve heard stories of some of them even calling bosses and campaigning behind another coach’s back.
This has been going on for such a long time that it is now acceptable. But I think it is unethical for people to go behind others’ backs.
But where is the coaches’ association when all this is happening? This is when they should be talking about the livelihood of their members, but their silence is really deafening. Or are they also masquerading as wannabe coaches?
. Follow me on Twitter @TimSpirit
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