Coaching is sometimes referred to as football's most thankless job and one person who feels this way is Alex Bapela, who feels he did quite well while he was an assistant coach at Mamelodi Sundowns.
Bapela, a former player at Sundowns, worked as an assistant under Johan Neeskens and Pitso Mosimane at the club. Soccer Laduma spoke to the midfielder, who famously wore the number eight jersey, about his spells as assistant under the two highly rated coaches.
The years
I worked 2012/13 and 2014/15 as an assistant and part of 2016. I was assistant coach to Johan Neeskens, before Pitso Mosimane came to Sundowns (in 2013).
Relationship with the head coaches
Johan Neeskens was a good coach, but he was just too sweet for our football. In South Africa, our players need to be pushed, so he was not used to that, and he was easily manipulated by the players. I think that's the main reason he could not make it here, but he is a really good coach. My relationship with him was good. He was a typical European coach. He would give you, as his assistants, everything to do and then he sits and watches and then he would rectify wherever necessary. Pitso knew what he wanted and he would not compromise. With Pitso, you do what he wants and not what you think is good, because what you think is good might not be in line with what he wanted. So, Pitso was firm. I can't say 'strict', but he had that firm hand over the players. They could feel that they could not take advantage or do anything. That's the kind of coach he is and I think that's why he was successful. Another thing about him is that he is a real hard worker. Pitso would finish maybe four Redbulls a day and have cups of coffee in between. At night, he would not sleep. You'd see him in the morning having notes that he made the previous night from a match he was watching. He would note it down and then the following day he would come and we discuss it and see if it would work for the team.
My role as an assistant coach
The players were closer to me and I was someone they could come talk to. At times Pitso was firm and maybe there were a few players who were scared to talk to him. The players knew that they could come talk to me and before I told him about what the players were saying, I would have to first check what mood he was in.
Who was in the team
Under both coaches, the teams were surprisingly almost the same. Wayne Sandilands was there. Ramahlwe Mphahlele was there on the right and Punch Masenamela on the left. Muzi Mashaba and (Tebogo) Langerman were there on the left and there was (Alje) Schut at centre back. There was Method (Mwanjale) and we had Teko Modise and Surprise Moriri in midfield. We had Cheeseboy (Lebohang Mokoena) and (Elias) Pelembe. We had Hlompho Kekana, Anthony Laffor, Katlego Mashego and 'Killer' Mphela as well. The squad we had was very talented. Locally, we did not have a match. We had more talent than all the teams and we could beat them easily. But I don't think we were strong enough for Africa at the time, but Pitso was still building the team until he got exactly what he wanted, hence he won the Champions League in 2016.
Who was the captain and why
It was Alje Schut. He was a professional, a fully fledged professional. He was disciplined. He was everything. Most of the players looked up to him. Before he came to us, he played for Utrecht for about 13 years. He was a hard worker. Even though he was in the latter years of his career, he was still pushing.
The best thing about the job
The best thing about being an assistant is that you are not the head, so the pressure is not there too much. You are a bit on the safer side. You don't feel pressure like the head coach, which is why most of the time you have to take the pressure off the head coach as an assistant coach and you have to allow yourself to be used by him. After losing a game, you are the only person he can talk to and sometimes he does not talk nice, so you have to understand his feelings.
The worst thing about the job
You never get the recognition you need. Even if you leave, it doesn't feel like you did something. People easily forget. Most of the people forget who was assistant to Pitso when he got to Sundowns. All they think of is Pitso.
Would you ever do it again?
Any time. According to my small world, I was playing a big role, but the head coach got the credit. But I learnt a lot under the two coaches, because under (Hristo) Stoichkov, I was an analyst. I was a spy, so I was basically checking the game. I was spying on the (opposition) games before we played them.
