Nteo Insists Co-Coaching Is Working

Royal AM coach Abram Nteo has maintained that the co-coaching setup is working despite Khabo Zondo being removed from the sidelines and redeployed within the club.

Nteo is now running things solo at Royal AM, after he, Dan Malesela and Zondo were all appointed as the trio of coaches at the beginning of the season.

Zondo, according to iDiski Times sources, has been removed from the dugout by the club and will be the Head of Development.

However, Nteo didn’t want to engage in the changes on Tuesday, only saying the club will release a statement about the issue of Zondo, but nothing has been shared with the media since.

Meanwhile, Nteo has remained adamant that the co-coaching concept is working.

“It’s working, but it is only that you need to understand one another,” he said.

“And you need to make sure that you work [as a team] and you say one thing and you understand one another.

“I think for me it’s something that is working – I don’t know if other people think it’s not working.

“But for me it’s like we have a coach and an assistant. So it’s working also for other teams.”

When pressed if it’s not confusing the players yet again, Nteo maintained that it’s not.

“Not really. As I said, we need to make sure that we say one thing to them and it’s not like the other one says this and the other says this, we need to make sure that whatever we are saying, it comes out [the same].

“Even if I’m not there and the other coach is not there, it has to be the same thing.

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“So it doesn’t confuse the players.”

When Malesela left Royal AM, he said the co-coaching did not work for him and he felt his style of play was lost. It is why he decided to leave the club to re-join Marumo Gallants.

Also, Fadlu Davids, who was the co-head coach at Orlando Pirates last season alongside Mandla Ncikazi, was another who said the co-coaching set up doesn’t work.

The only clubs that are left with a co-coaching setups are Royal AM’s provincial rivals – Golden Arrows and Richards Bay.

Sundowns were the first club to go for the co-coaching set up after larger than life coach Pitso Mosimane left them in September 2020. However, they have dumped it, with Rulani Mokwena given the post as the head coach in October last year.