Steve Komphela says Swallows were part of the traditional big four of South African football and the ambition should be bringing back that tag.
Komphela left Sundowns on Sunday in a surprise move to be announced as the new head coach of the Dube Birds, who finished eighth in the league last season, which was a tumultuous campaign by any standards.
However, luring the experienced tactician to the Soweto-based club is seen as a move to stabilise them once more in the DStv Premiership, before moving onto bigger and better targets in the long term, something Komphela is highly cognizant about.
“It should be a possibility [to stabilise Swallows], I was saying to the Chairman… traditionally, as you would say Besiktas, Trabzonspor, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray those are the top four, if you think of Bayern, Dortmund, Barcelona, Real Madrid, wherever you go, in South Africa there’s always been a tradition of Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows,” Komphela said to the club’s media department.
“But Swallows stepped aside and we left the gap of being mentioned as one of the top four, so there’s great room for improvement, it should be a nice challenge to want to complete that equation, when people say the big four, it should be Chiefs, Pirates, Sundowns, Swallows.
“But listen it may take five years, it may take six years, it may take a period where we are not here, but as long as we are here it should be our ambition to want to complete that spot.”
Komphela will start his tenure for his new club in the MTN8 quarter-finals against Masandawana in August.
