Former Chippa United coach Gavin Hunt has revealed what he told Daine Klate before he accepted his new role as Chippa head coach.
Klate, who was in charge of the club’s Diski Challenge team, was appointed as Chippa coach on Monday after interim coach Kurt Lentjies had been placed on “special leave”.
Hunt himself started the 2021/22 season as Chippa coach but was later replaced by Lentjies. He also worked for many years with Klate as a player and revealed the 37-year-old called him before accepting the job offer.
“Daine phone me on Sunday. He said he got a call from the Chippa chairman,” Hunt told Andile Ncube on Sport Night Amplified.
“I said ‘you’ve got nothing to lose and I think you should take it’. If he wants to get into this laying of coaching and this pathway.
“He’s done an exceptional job with the team there. I brought him on board when I went down there last year, cause I knew what his passion and his desire is.
“He’s built a really good team there and I think he’s got a future if he wants it. He’s got a good brain, he knows the game, his credentials as a player are fantastic.
“He’s done his licenses, he’s got more experience in actual coaching, finding solutions to problems, which is what coaching is all about and doing certain training drills and exercises, not just training but training for a specific reason.
“We’ve had long conversations and we talk a lot. I think it’s a great opportunity for him.”
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Hunt also insisted Klate must move quickly in the transfer market to bring in a few new faces to strengthen his team.
“His biggest problems he’s going to have is players, acquire players and pay players, because I think the market has really shrunk a lot in a short space of time in South Africa,” he added.
“Those little bargains that you could get are not around too many. A lot of players have been released, he can still built a very competitive team.
“What he’s gonna have to do, he’s got to learn on his feet and I’ve told that. Sometimes it’s gonna get worse, than he’s got to come out and say it, what do we need to do and how we’re gonna do it.
“This period is very short till the first game. I don’t know what they’ve got, they’ve lost a few players now. The secret of any coach is to acquire a player that can do a decent job.”
