Ricardo Nascimento says he was never in favour of Mamelodi Sundowns appointing co-coaches in the first place when they did so in 2020.
He said the coaches – Manqoba Mngqithi, Steve Komphela and Rulani Mokwena – were bound to clash at some point because they don’t think things the same.
Sundowns on Monday, after the 3-0 hammering at the hands of Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 semi-final second leg, decided to restructure their technical team, saying they weren’t happy with the latest performances.
Mokwena was named the Head Coach, with Steve Komphela named First Team Coach and Manqoba Mngqithi being demoted to Senior Coach – Komphela’s previous role.
Mokwena started his tenure with a 5-0. thumping of Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium on Tuesday, and Nascimento told this publication why he feels having one leader is much better.
“For me this from the beginning [co-coaching] was not good,” said Nascimento to iDiski Times.
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“Because they have different ways of thinking. For me it is good to have one leader, and now it is possible with Rulani as the head coach – I don’t know.
“But for me you need one leader. Too many coaches at once – one talk this, one talks that, it’s not good. It leaves players confused.
“This happened to me several times when I was there. But this is my opinion and I don’t like it. I’ll make an example of Pitso Mosimane, he was one leader.
“Yes, he had coach Rulani, coach Manqoba, but Pitso was the leader. Pitso was making calls on how things were supposed to be done.
“This was confusing especially in Africa. There’s so much information, but the players were left confused.”
Nascimento was at Sundowns when the management decided to go with a co-coaching trio. This after the larger than life coach Mosimane shocked many by resigning to join Al Ahly in September 2020.
With a trio of coaches, Nascimento won the league in the 2020/21 season, however, the following season he decided to terminate his contract to join Royal AM in February.
He accused Sundowns of trying to “kill his career”, who suggested he should go back home to Brazil in January to allow new signing Erwin Saveedra to take up his foreign spot.
According to Nascimento, he said Sundowns told him to come back at the beginning of the 2022/23 campaign.
However, with his contract with Sundowns ending in June, it was highly unlikely they were going to take up the option to renew. Nascimento saw it from a distance to terminate it.
“These are different people,” added Nascimento.
“Rulani is more involved in training, Manqoba talks more, coach Steve is the players’ person. He is always happy all the time. But in my opinion one leader is much better.”
Story by Robin-Duke Madlala (@duke_robin).
