Reflecting back on his time coaching in South Africa, Manchester United first team coach Benni McCarthy said that perhaps his status was too big for his former clubs.
McCarthy was speaking to Rob Delport in an exclusive conversation in Edition 101 of iDiski Times, his first interview with South African media since joining Erik ten Hag’s technical team.
McCarthy recalled a time before he joined United when he spoke to Delport when in Scotland, and he had been down because he wasn’t working, and because of how his tenure’s came to an end.
McCarthy led Cape Town City to the MTN8 title in his second season, one of two finals he reached with the Cape Town outfit. He then led AmaZulu to a highest-ever second-place finish in the DStv Premiership, which saw them qualify for continental football, and under McCarthy, Usuthu reached the group stages on debut.
“I was sad, because I was sad from disappointment because I didn’t expect when you have the kind of success that I had with the clubs that I’ve worked with, for them to then take the route of making you unemployed and firing you because they couldn’t deal with the success you were bringing to the clubs,” McCarthy told iDiski Times.
“But also they couldn’t deal with the popularity that was growing, what my name meant to our people. So they couldn’t deal with that. And then they felt the best way is to get someone that’s not as big as I was. And yeah, that makes me sad.
“Because I couldn’t understand what direction South Africa is going, when you have success, and you get fired for being successful, or doing what not many coaches in their career have done. So that was what I couldn’t stomach.
“And that made me sad when you called me. But I wasn’t sad because of them…”
McCarthy said he had been sad because he wasn’t on a pitch coaching and working with players.
“Yeah exactly, and because the reason why I wasn’t working was because of the success that I wanted to bring to the clubs, and that I had already brought to the clubs,” he continued.
“So that made me a bit like, ‘Wow, okay’. So you must rather be mediocre, or have done nothing in your career as a player, or as an ex-player, or now as a manager. That’s what they rather want, to associate themselves with mediocracy, instead of someone that wants to make the club, and put them on the level where they’ve never been before.
“So yeah, so then clearly they weren’t for me. You know they did me the greatest favours. Because if you look where I am now, a few years down the line, from managing Cape Town City and AmaZulu, at that time, I would have never thought this would even be a possibility.”
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You can read the full interview with McCarthy where he also talks about his dream job, working with Erik ten Hag and top level professional players at United, in the free online version of the iDiski Times newspaper.
Source Link Exclusive: Benni – My Name Was Too Big For City & AmaZulu
