Orlando Pirates assistant coach Mandla Ncikazi says he had doubts about the appointment of Jose Riveiro because he was coming from outside and was never known in South Africa.
Pirates, on the day when the focus was at SAFA Elective Congress in Sandton, were not left behind to be on trend list, appointing unknown Riveiro on 25 June on a three-year deal.
Riveiro was without a club for six months, with his last coaching job being in Finland for Inter Turku which ended in December 2021.
He was coming at the time when Pirates’ season last term ended with a whimper, having finished sixth in the DStv Premiership and lost to RS Berkane in the CAF Confederation Cup on penalties.
Ncikazi and Fadl Davids were co-coaches, but did not help themselves as the team kept on changing the starting line-up almost on the regularity, struggling to find the cohesion.
However, as they say consistency is the key to success, which was a failure to Ncikazi and Davids, Riveiro found that, but of course at the latter stage.
The Vigo-born coach found the cohesion in this Pirates side and the Bucs won the MTN8 trophy last November when they beat AmaZulu in the final.
This past weekend they added the second, beating Sekhukhune United with a come-from-behind victory at the sold-out Loftus Stadium on Saturday.
This after Pirates had finished second in the DStv Premiership a week before to qualify for the CAF Champions League.
The credit had to be given to Riveiro, who was unknown in SA and his CV never inspired in the first place, but was able to bring a smile to Pirates’ faces, who had painfully complained about the style of play last season.
Ncikazi did not imagine this was going to unfold in this way at the end at first glance.
“To be honest with you, I was a bit confused because you don’t know these guys (Riveiro and his assistant Sergio Almenara), you don’t know what they have and what kind of people they are,” said Ncikazi with SABC Ukhozi FM.
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“It is like that when you combine two people from different countries, especially from Europe, plenty of time you don’t see things the same way based on different cultures, regions and the way we see things.
“But luckily, I won’t lie, these guys are professional and they know their work. But in a new relationship you need to get to know each other, it was never a beautiful marriage from the onset, signs were there that we didn’t work together.
“But it is important from my side when people arrive, I shouldn’t judge, but accept them, listen if you are not happy but see what their intentions are, also those from the club, that this is what they want.
“You can see the club has good intentions. If we don’t achieve results, they will make changes and you have to accept it. This is not about me, not about someone else, but about the fans all over Africa.”
