KAIZER Chiefs coach Cedric Kaze has hit back to critics who continue to question him and co-interim coach Khalil Ben Youssef being retained at Naturena to finish the season. Cedric Kaze is finally standing up for the under-fire Kaizer Chiefs technical team, knowing they are not everyone’s cup of tea and that Rome wasn’t built in a day, while insisting they will bask in the glory of their success at the end of the season. Kaze and Khalil Ben Youssef have been steering Chiefs’ ship since the early part of the season.
Their appointment was bizarre, given that the club decided to retain them after sacking their superior and head coach, Nasreddine Nabi. They have done their bit to show that they are the right men for the job, guiding Amakhosi to third place in the Betway Premiership with 16 games to go, as well as qualification for the CAF Confederation Cup group stage. Still, they have attracted more naysayers than admirers.
There remains a large group of Amakhosi faithful, fellow coaches, and pundits who feel they are out of their depth and do not have what it takes to coach a club of Chiefs’ calibre. Critics add that while the duo have the credentials to coach some of the biggest clubs on the continent, coupled with a solid coaching track record, their most notable success came under Nabi – making it more confusing why the club decided to retain them. Kaze, in particular, has been heavily scrutinised, with many feeling that he is more of an interpreter than a coach, having doubled up in the interpretation and assistance roles under the Tunisian.
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The soft-spoken Congolese, after their 1–0 win over Lamontville Golden Arrows during their league restart at FNB Stadium on Tuesday night, wore a defiant tone, declaring that he and the rest of the technical team are not at the club by chance. “I don’t feel that I am not trusted. Instead, I feel very supported within the team – the management, the players, and all the colleagues around us,” Kaze said.
“Sometimes, I feel it’s the ‘outside people’ who try to create things. “I would say there is also a lack of respect when talking about a position when there is already a coach in place, with some people saying, ‘I will make them champions,’ but when you look at the history of that coach, he has never done that before. “We know what we are doing, and we are qualified.
I am giving you until the end of the season. We’ll meet, and I am pretty sure everyone will apologise.” While promising his detractors will eat humble pie at the end of the season, Kaze is not naïve enough to think that Rome was built in one day. Chiefs might be on an eight-game unbeaten run in the league, but that does not mean they are outright contenders for the title.
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