Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has addressed the pressures of potentially losing his job due to their inconsistent run of form.
Chiefs start to 2023 has epitomised Zwane’s reign since replacing Stuart Baxter as head coach – a promising 2-0 away win over Golden Arrows, followed by defeats to Sekhukhune United at home and a 4-0 trouncing against AmaZulu at Moses Mabhida Stadium last week.
It’s brought widespread frustration within the club’s fan base and visibly within the squad as they get to grips with the inconsistencies that come with building a squad with limited experience of winning silverware.
Ahead of facing reigning champions Mamelodi Sundowns, who beat them 4-0 at Loftus Versveld in the first round of the campaign, Zwane said he’s not worried about potentially losing his job as they trail Masandawana by 19 points, albeit with a game in hand.
“To be quite honest, I’m not worried, we have a plan as a club, a plan that needs to be executed – if we look back, for how many years have we tried to hit the ground running? Did it work for the club? It didn’t work,” Zwane said at the Village on Thursday morning.
“Whether you like it or not we have to do something and there are teams you can make an example of in Europe, look at Arsenal, why are they doing so well now? Because they had so much patience and belief in whoever they put in there.
“They give him the opportunity and space to try and work things out and you can see the results yourself. I don’t want to compare… I’m not saying we can do what Arsenal are doing, I’m just making an example.
“We have a plan, we want to execute the plan and you’ll pay the price when it comes to results, it will fluctuate because you’re trying to get something going, you want to improve on certain things. If you don’t get it right [in the process] someone will come in future and be able to grind results out.”
Zwane said he is carrying out the plan that was laid out upon his appointment; to set the building blocks for future success at the Soweto giants after eight years without a trophy and the club’s identity lost along the way with several questionable coaching decisions and sub-par player recruitment.
“There will be a way of playing, identity, the system will profile players [to sign] and the coaches going forward. It’s not about Arthur Zwane, it’s not about individuals, it’s about the future of the club,” he continued.
“I’m not worried about losing my job – I knew when I took over this job, at some point, I would need to give other people an opportunity. What I didn’t know was for how long I’d be in this position, but I have a task to fulfill and I’m doing exactly what the team has asked me to do.”
Chiefs take on Masandawana on Saturday evening at the FNB Stadium (20h00).
