Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane is remaining optimistic about the future despite finishing his debut season without silverware and likely without CAF inter-club qualification.
Chiefs suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Orlando Pirates in extra-time in their Nedbank Cup semi-final on Saturday at FNB Stadium that ended their five-match winning run against their fierce rivals in the Soweto Derby.
But added to the agony for the Amakhosi faithful, it ended their hopes of ending the eight-season trophy drought and qualifying for the CAF Confederation Cup by advancing to the final of the competition that will be competed by Pirates and Sekhukhune United on 27 May at Loftus Verfeld.
And it’s naturally brought up plenty of pessimism around his future amongst the fan base, with a season started as the fresh revival for Chiefs aimed at going back to their traditional roots and style of play towards the future after steeing away from the ‘Chiefs way’ under Ernst Middendorp, Gavin Hunt and Stuart Baxter’s second tenure.
“Unfortunately you’re the only one who sees it as a solid season, many people, obviously because of the demands… playing for this team and the expectations, they will see us as failures and forget where we come from,” Zwane said when asked how he will build on from a solid debut season.
“But I understand, I take it like a man, I’m disappointed, I believe we could have done better. We’ve done a lot of things well, when you compare where we come from, changing the squad and it was never going to be easy anyway.
“Hence I said I am very proud of the players, we’re only left with two games and when you look at the stats, they say stats don’t lie, go and check the stats of Kaizer Chiefs for the past three seasons, then you will see there’s a lot of improvement in this squad compared to the previous squads we assembled.”
Chiefs end their season with league fixtures against SuperSport United at Royal Bafokeng Stadium and Cape Town City at FNB Stadium over the next two weeks.
