During the 2002/03 season Cape Town was represented by three teams in the PSL. Those teams were Ajax Cape Town, Hellenic and Santos.
Watch Khaya's Video Blog on Bloemfontein Celtic coach, Clinton Larsen.
Hellenic got relegated the following season and from then on Ajax and Santos became the only Cape Town representatives until the 2010/11 season, when Vasco da Gama were promoted. Once again the Mother City's fans enjoyed seeing the PSL big three teams (Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns) visiting Cape Town's shores three times a season, and maybe more if any of them faced Cape Town opposition in cup football.
Vasco, though, were relegated in the same season they were promoted and then there were two, before Santos got relegated in the 2011/12 season. Chippa United got promoted during that same season and Capetonians were happy because the Mother City had retained their two team representatives in the PSL.?
?The alarm bells rang towards the end of last season when both Ajax Cape Town and Chippa found themselves at the bottom of the log, fighting for survival, and Capetonians' fears became a reality when Chippa were relegated. As it stands now, only one team is left in the PSL, left to represent Cape Town next season. ??
So many reasons were put forward as to why Chippa were relegated, but many fingers were pointing towards Chippa's owner, Siviwe 'Chippa' Mpengesi's management style, that saw the team making history by firing more than six coaches in one season. But what about the coaches? Were they good enough to retain Chippa's PSL status? What is it that they did that failed to produce the same results that the current coach Mark Harrison was able to get towards the end of the season?
Mind you, one of the coaches that left Chippa was Professor Ngubane - the word is that he was promised good money by Atlie FC and decided to go down to the NFD instead of staying with Chippa in the PSL. Mpengesi is no saint, he had his flaws, but is he the only one to blame for Chippa's demise? ??
Just down the road, in Parow, reports of boardroom squabbles between the Efstathiou and Comitis families almost cost Ajax their PSL status until prodigal coach Muhsin Ertugral came to the rescue and saved the Urban Warriors. The Comitis brothers have since sold their shares in the club and Ertugral was retained as the head coach, and it seems all is well at the Urban Warriors.??
Chippa and Santos were afforded the opportunity to go back to the PSL via the Promotional Playoffs, but they lost out to Mpumalanga Black Aces in the end. And then what happened is, while Chippa were trying hard to retain Harrison as the coach, Santos were getting rid of Ian Palmer and replacing him with former player David Notoane. The worrying factor is that Notoane is still wet behind the ears, so to speak, as this is his first job as a NFD coach after being an assistant coach for many years. ??
One cannot help but think about William Mugeyi's disastrous spell with Chippa last season. Prior to taking over the head coach position at Chippa, Mugeyi had spent years as an assistant at Ajax and it seems that the job became too big for him. For Santos' sake and for the people of Cape Town, who are desperately hoping for another team in the PSL soon, one hopes that he doesn't dare fail? Otherwise Cape Town will continue to have a lone club in the PSL for many more seasons.
??The question is why is Cape football in decline when there's so much talent in the Mother City? ??
My assessment tells me that poor management is the reason why Cape Town has only one team in the PSL. I can go on about Chippa's hiring and firing of coaching, Ajax's boardroom squabbles, and Santos' persistency with Mart Nooij, when the Dutchman was clearly running out of ideas, and Vasco's failure to assist Carlos das Nerves who prior to leading Vasco, had no experience coaching in the PSL. ??
Well, this is my assessment, what's yours?
??Till next time! ??Sidlal'idiski! ? ?
Khaya Ndubane
Follow Khaya on Twitter: @Lakhandu
