Kaizer Chiefs veteran goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune has explained what coach Arthur Zwane told him regarding managing his game-time.
Khune is currently the longest serving player at Chiefs after joining the senior team in 2004.
He’s made a comeback under Zwane this season, featuring in 11 games during which he conceded 12 goals, but Brandon Petersen was preferred over the 35-year-old in the club’s last three games.
Despite his inconsistent starts, Khune has insisted that the rotation between the goalkeepers at the Glamour Boys makes sense to him.
“It doesn’t kill the confidence of any player, I think in football we know that in every position there are two to three players to compete and it’s important that all those players get game-time,” Khune told the media.
“We know how many games we get to play in a season. So at my age the coach’s philosophy was to say ‘we have four number ones’; which is myself, Brandon Petersen, Bruce Bvuma, and Bontle Molefe.
“And he [Zwane] got through to tell us his philosophy, he said ‘at your age we going to manage you. You won’t be playing all the matches’.
“You know when the coach does that, you can always come back and play for him. You will have that good relationship and in our goalkeeping department we have a healthy relationship, we have a healthy competition.
“So that’s why we all got to play this season and we still have a lot of matches to be played and we all push one another and we all prepare very well for every match and we prepare the same.
“Who the coach chooses on match-day, we all have to support him and it’s not for ourselves as individuals are for the benefit of the club.”
It remains to be seen whether Petersen will retain his spot in the Amakhosi goal for Saturday’s Soweto Derby or whether Khune might return – another option is Bruce Bvuma, who was between the sticks during the first Soweto Derby of the season, which Chiefs won 1-0.
