Benni McCarthy’s representative Rob Moore has given more insight after the former Bafana Bafana star parted ways with AmaZulu.
Usuthu announced the departure of McCarthy, who had been head coach at the club since December 2019.
Moore, speaking on PowerSport on PowerFM, said McCarthy had been the victim of his own success.
“I think possibly the club obviously must have thought that the results weren’t to their liking,” Moore told PowerSport on PowerFM.
“I think but going hand in hand and running parallel with that has been I think a long time frustration on Benni’s sides, which he has made public in the last X number of weeks or transfer windows as such, that he doesn’t feel that the squad has been appropriately strengthened to build a foundation for what possibly the owners have as ambitions for the club.
“You know, Benni’s obviously become a victim of his own incredible success last season.
“Let’s not forget, not last season, but the season before this is a club that was nearly relegated if I’m not mistaken, on the last day of the window, and, and then, and then he came in when they had six points from seven games.
“And he took them to second in the league. And with all of that, with the addition of one player and that was the player that came from Cape Town City on loan. (Zukile Kewuti), who came on loan. That was the sole addition to the team in Benni’s first transfer window.
“And he took that team from near relegation, when he took over in December, to second in the league. So that was miraculous, and it was a complete over-achievement. But it is what it is and he did an unbelievable job.”
Moore said that he felt that McCarthy wasn’t able to sign the quality of players he needed to take AmaZulu to the next level.
“You then go into your main transfer in there in June, July, August,” he continued.
“You’re now playing African Champions League, you have very ambitious owners, and you cannot think that because you’ve ended up second the previous season that you don’t need to significantly strengthen if you want to maintain that kind of success and actually go one step further and challenge for the league.
“You have to go out and buy players now. I know that the club may have the belief that well you don’t have to buy players in order to strengthen your team, you can get free players to send your team.
“There are some exceptions, they quite correct. If you look at a Donnarumma, the goalkeeper of PSG came for free from AC Milan, if you look at Paul Pogba who is going to be free at the end of the season.
“Yes, there are some quality players that you can get on free, but by and large, free players are free for a reason. Because in many times either the club that owns them has messed up the negotiation, or the player hasn’t been good enough to find a transfer, and hence has had to just sit out his contracts until the end, so one has to look at who he signed and who was signed on free transfers.
“And one has to say, well, where did these guys come from? Were they key players at their previous clubs? And therefore could they have been of the quality to take AmaZulu one step better than coming runners up in the league?
“Now if the management can answer that and say 100% Yes, at the end of the day, these free guys, we’ve got you were key guys at their clubs, and these guys have the quality to take us to challenge Sundowns for the league.
“Well, that would be one answer. I don’t necessarily believe that that could logically be the answer.”
Moore said that in the 16 months McCarthy was at the club, Usuthu actually only made one recruitment that wasn’t a free agent.
“The bottom line is that the only time that the club paid to buy a player, who was a regular player at his club, was Mobara in January, who came from Cape Town City,” he said.
“And Mobara, as we know has played in the last few years at Bafana level. So I think that was Benni’s biggest single frustration. You want me to build a team that is a big team, that can challenge big teams.
“You want me to do all these kinds of things. You promise the fans all these things. But at the end of the day, at some stage, you’ve got to put some bullets in the gun for me. It’s just not possible to keep overachieving and keep miracle producing forever and a day.”
