A veteran of over 450 games in the South African top-flight, Ernst Middendorp is arguably one of the most experienced coaches in local football. With 12 spells at eight different clubs in the PSL, the German tactician has every right to claim to be one of the longest-serving mentors in the League. That's why it came as no surprise when Cape Town Spurs hired him in November as the team was fighting against relegation and at the bottom of the DStv Premiership log. Having led Kaizer Chiefs in his second spell to their best position in recent times, finishing in second place in the 2019/20 season, and boasting of rescuing Maritzburg United from relegation in the 2015/16 campaign on the final day after joining halfway through, Middendorp saw the Urban Warriors project as a challenge to prove his worth once again. Despite the gallant fight produced by the Mother City-based outfit following a disappointing start to the season, Spurs fell short of maintaining their top-flight status and were automatically relegated to the Motsepe Foundation Championship at the end of the season. In this interview with Soccer Laduma's Masebe Qina, the 65-year-old talks about the highs and lows of the 2023/24 season.
Masebe Qina: Coach, in a surprise turn of events, you are back at Cape Town Spurs after it was initially announced that you left the club earlier this month. What happened?
Ernst Middendorp: We have been talking consistently since the end of the season. The discussions had been about what we can do in the worst case, and what we can do in the best case and all those things. Against Golden Arrows (in the penultimate round of fixtures), we were aware that we were relegated and that we wouldn't make it to position 15. It's the responsibility of the club and that's what happened. We couldn't find an alignment and we couldn't find the right way to cooperate in terms of what could be done and what should be done, etcetera. Of course, the last day of May arrived and after we had our last meeting at 6 for an hour, a decision had to be made that Friday evening. There is a responsibility in terms of the budget and in terms of the contract and whatever, and they had to say, "Okay, we terminate the contract for now." I said, "Okay, you have to do this for now." We took a break for about three or four days because I was in the Drakensberg. After refreshing and everything, we started with the discussions again, and that's a little bit of a background about it. Sometimes there are economical aspects that lead to it.
MQ: How do you feel about the "return"?
EM: Basically, it's not a return, Masebe, it's not a return. It's just to say, "Okay, make a definition about the project." The project has a beginning, and it has an end. The beginning for me was very clear. I started the project at the beginning of January and soon realised it wasn't working. We had seen four games in December, and we were not moving out (of relegation zone), and we were not performing to get the results. You can't always do the same thing and expect different results. That's when the project started for me, taking some of the players out and bringing the young guys into the starting eleven, while also assigning others into different positions. Of course, we got relegated because we did not have enough points, but building a team with a certain profile is something else. What we have seen in the 14 games we played in 2024 this project is not finished. So, this is about re-activating the project and continuing with it. The end of this project wasn't the end of May, but it will probably be June 2025. We are very clear: we want the team to play in a certain way and to execute that consistently and precisely. Hopefully, this approach will help us accumulate the points needed for a successful finish in June 2025.
MQ: Have you been given one season to finish the project?
EM: I don't know if it's one year, or if there is an option, I don't know. For me, I am only focused on the start of the season, and what will happen next year. As for what will happen after this, I don't know.
MQ: We are with you.
EM: I think it's very crucial for me to highlight that it is not my intention to criticise in the beginning of the season. It's not my intention to criticise anyone who was responsible during the couple of months from July, starting the preseason, until the beginning of November. I came in at the end of November. Of course, I had to play the relegation round. You know it, and it's always a little bit difficult. You lose the market. And you know what happened?
MQ: You tell us.
EM: You lose the market in terms of the players to release and the players to bring in. You lose the market in terms of having a proper preseason. All these circumstances have been disturbing in terms of starting the season. However, three points out of 15 games in the first half of the season, yeah, it's not a lot. It's definitely something I had at Maritzburg United once. We had eight points after half of the season, and it was the last game (that the club survived relegation). We made it, but three points? You have to realise, as I said it in the beginning, that it was like chasing something impossible.
MQ: We hear you…
EM: But we went into it, and definitely, at the beginning of the year, after we played, I carefully and repeatedly watched the games in December. In particular, the last game we had against Cape Town City on the 31st of December was where I made my decision. We had to change radically to bring something into the team to be successful at the end of the day, and that is what happened at the beginning of January. (I'm talking about) releasing players, activating resources. By resources, I mean introducing a couple of young players to give them another approach in terms of being core players. Not only that, but also bringing players into different positions. For example, Liam (Bern) was always used only on the left full-back side, and he played a crucial role in all these games in a "double six" in a holding role. Making Chumani Butsaka the captain was a totally different approach, because before the main criterion for captaincy was the age here.
MQ: What were some of the changes that you made?
EM: We went from a four-defence line to a three, sometimes five, sometimes two, with a very flexible approach regarding the system and the setup as a reference point. Coming back from the Africa Cup of Nations, we didn't have Nicholus Lukhubeni and that was something sudden. It was a similar situation with Luvuyo Phewa. After the first four games, he was not available anymore. He played a crucial role during the pre-season and going into the first games. Then he got sick, and he has not really recovered to this day. This is definitely something we have seen a team where the chemistry was okay. It was more than okay; we saw a team that could reach a new level of high intensity, with runs, speed, and pace all significantly improved. And of course, we were able to put more distance running in significantly if you watched the blocks, from one to the block six inside the second half of the season. As you have seen the league table shows you that in 14 games in 2024, the team finished in position six, and that was incredible to be in the Top Eight in the second half of the season, but you have to relegate. It is something that is not only painful and I would say it's a crime.
MQ: What did you think of the referees and their officiating?
EM: They were all fantastic. They are all good, and I'm not being sarcastic. I'll tell you why I say this. The referees in this moment are all fantastic and this is not a joke. We must all know that we have to start thinking about the referees for the fact that they are not full-time professionals. All the referees in this league are either teachers or employed elsewhere. That's why I say, of course, in the heat of the game, you shout at the referee and whatever, and that's normal. But we should also think about their position. Again, I'm not making jokes; this is my 100% point of view. If I go into reflection of the games I have seen, and then ask, have you always been fair to the referee? The answer is no, and it's because I think about where they are coming from. If we have full-time professionals, then it would be a different story altogether. We need professional soccer referees like we see it in Europe. The fact is, referees and linesmen are all fully employed elsewhere, and on the side, they have to rush to the games. It's a little bit like putting a student in the ICU to perform heart transplant surgery. It doesn't work like that. Please make it happen (make all match officials full-time professionals). Go the next step. Talk about putting professionalism into the referees.
MQ: Improved showing from Spurs in the last match of the season against Kaizer Chiefs despite already being relegated. Did you expect the 2-0 final score?
EM: We should have won against Golden Arrows in Hammarsdale. Yes, we got the three points and two goals against Kaizer Chiefs, but there should have been one or two more goals at least for us. I said it before; the chemistry and character of our team, starting with all these changes since the beginning of January, have been good. Don't forget about the contribution of players like Michael Morton, Nazeer Allie, and others. It was really about players being professional and contributing on and off the field with the right attitude and that was very crucial to give the right direction as they were also supportive to all the young players.
MQ: Always good to see senior players leading by example.
EM: But it had nothing to do with Kaizer Chiefs. It was the consequence I'm talking about. We wanted to win against Arrows, and we wanted to win against Royal AM, Polokwane City, Richards Bay and so on. We produced this winning mentality, and you have to produce a certain winning mentality, as that is part of the professional soccer set up. We have been successful with it but unfortunately, we lost the game against Polokwane City 1-0 in extra time. We lost 1-0 against Sundowns with a very interesting penalty but there was one not given for us. We lost against Moroka Swallows, but anyway, there were some moments where you really could say we tried. We put all our mentality in, but we couldn't come through in the right moment. It's not my right to talk about Kaizer Chiefs but one thing I am very clear about, they looked like an average team in a couple of games, especially towards the end. Let me be very clear, this has nothing to do with insulting somebody. It's just a very clear observation. I will tell you this, because there is a similar situation in Germany with Bayern Munich, and there is a coach – a 90-year-old who was asked what he thought of Bayern Munich, and he said he felt sorry for the next coach. And as I am talking to you now, I say I feel sorry for the next coach who will be taking over at Kaizer Chiefs. The guy I'm talking about said he believes that the current team has too many average players and he was talking about Bayern Munich. I will say the same talking about Kaizer Chiefs from what I have seen. There are too many average players there and it's just very difficult now to go into the direction of being successful with the club.
MQ: Interestingly, you are the last coach to have come close to winning the league with Chiefs…
EM: (Cuts in) Not only the league, not only that, in one-and-a-half years of nothing or not going to a cup final, and forget about losing it, going back to a cup final was already a certain achievement from out of nowhere. The team had brought in Samir Nurkovic, Kearyn Baccus and Yagan Sasman as the notable signings and the rest had a s**t season before. Then you compete until the last game, the last 15 minutes of the season, it is the biggest, biggest success in the history. That was in 2020 and now we are going into next season, the 2024/25 season, so now this is something I am not speculating about. These are facts, simple facts. These are numbers. This is evidence. It is not something I should even talk about. This is something you can see if you see the league table. And the money that was spent after this, in the following years, Holy s**t. Probably not in the following year that Gavin Hunt was in charge, but after this, yho.
MQ: Coach, thanks a lot for time, and we will see you in the Motsepe Foundation Championship.
EM: Thank you. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone I work with because at the end of the day it is about teamwork.
