THE question lingers that should Kaizer Chiefs beat Orlando Pirates on Sunday will that be enough to retain Cedric Kaze and Co at the helm come next season?
Image: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers
Heading into the rare Sunday Soweto derby, one question lingers above them all: considering all that has happened this season, would a win on Sunday against arch-rivals Orlando Pirates be enough to convince Kaizer Chiefs management keep Cedric Kaze and Khalil Ben Youssef as co-head coaches next season?
The two former assistants/translators to Tunisian Nasreddine Nabi have had a rollercoaster season; they kicked off well, opening with three or four consecutive wins.
But then they dipped towards the December/January break, leaving everyone to conclude that Chiefs would have a new man leading the team come the resumption of the second half of the 2025/26 season.
Of course, the Motaungs did not abide by that common sense. They stood by their men as results turned against them, amassing a four-game losing streak and suffering an early knockout in the Nedbank Cup.
Matters were exacerbated by that 3-0 humiliation at the hands of arch-rivals Orlando Pirates, who were looking like a well-oiled machine after bagging two trophies and mounting a league title challenge early in the season.
Just when the men leading Chiefs had become the country’s laughing stock, Kaze hosted that press conference where he dished out numbers as if he were conducting a statistics class.
What followed was a different Chiefs; winning five consecutive matches in a currently intact six-game unbeaten run.
In that period, Chiefs did not only win, but they appeared to have improved in almost all aspects of their game. Brandon Petersen had returned from injury and was keeping clean sheets, defenders became stingier with conceding, midfielders dominated duels, and forwards have been finding the net.
The forwards, led by Guinea Bissau-born striker Flavio da Silva up front, have scored 12 goals in six matches.
Chiefs last lost on March 3 when they were beaten 1-0 by Richards Bay at Umhlathuze. The defence has conceded only two goals since then, and the team has dominated its opponents, with at least four Player of the Match awards going the way of Chiefs in the past six matches.
There have been mentions of Chiefs thriving on the foundation laid by Nabi, and that is perfectly fine, after all the men in charge were brought in by Nabi. But Kaze — on his own and at the risk of being blamed by fellow coaches for over-explaining — was alone in that hot seat when he held his statistics class for the media.
It was after Nabi departed that the two men changed the club captaincy, stripping the armband from Inacio Miguel and Zitha Kwinika and handing it to the incumbent, Petersen.
That decision alone is a sign of men who are not afraid of being their own masters. Petersen has been Chiefs’ talisman from between the sticks, boasting 13 clean sheets in 19 league games. He is currently Chiefs' only hope for representation in the World Cup-bound Bafana Bafana squad.
Supporters will never forgive the 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Pirates, and no coach will ever be enough Chiefs fans so long as they yearn for Pitso Mosimane, but a win for Amakhosi on Sunday against their rivals could be a start.
The question, though, is: will that be enough to seal the deal with the Amakhosi management?