Kaizer Chiefs have appointed Patrick Mabedi as interim coach to replace Steve Komphela for the remainder of the 2017-18 season‚ the club has said.
Komphela abruptly left Chiefs on Saturday – without winning a single trophy during his three-year tenure – following a 2-0 defeat to unfancied Free State Stars in the semifinal of the Nedbank Cup at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
Mabedi, a 44-year-old former Malawian international, will be in charge of Chiefs in their three remaining matches this season.
“Mabedi will be assisted on the bench by Arthur Zwane‚ who is in charge of Chiefs’ reserve team. Zwane joined Amakhosi in 2000‚ playing for the first team until 2010‚” the club said.
“In the meantime‚ the search is on to find a new coach for next season.”
Chiefs‚ who are in fourth position on the Absa Premiership log standings with 43 points‚ will face Golden Arrows‚ Maritzburg United and Ajax Cape Town before the curtain comes down on the campaign.
Mabedi enjoyed a glorious playing career at Chiefs and won numerous trophies‚ including the back-to-back Premiership titles in 2003-04 and 2004-05 plus the Mandela Cup in 2001.
Meanwhile, Kaizer Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung is attempting to paint a rosy picture of Komphela’s tenure‚ even after his coach quit in the wake of the mayhem in Durban on Saturday.
“Anyone sensible‚ anyone who knows football‚ will recognise that Steve has done a great job for Kaizer Chiefs‚” Motaung insisted.
Motaung is himself in the firing line over his mediocre recruitments for the club in recent seasons.
“He has built a team but unfortunately when it’s not meant to be for you‚ it’s not meant to be,” he said.
“Whoever takes over in the future has got a cake baked already, for them just to eat.
“Steve revamped and built the Chiefs team over three years and we always had confidence in him but‚ unfortunately‚ he did not get results. It hurts because it disrupts our plans for the future.”
This sentiment is at odds with the fury that disappointed fans have expressed at various times over the last months‚ culminating in the ugly riot at the end of the loss to Free State Stars on Saturday.
Motaung has long backed Komphela even though his father‚ who owns the club‚ has long held reservations about the ability of local coaches.
Komphela was only the second South African in three decades to coach the club on a permanent basis but did not bring in a single trophy – in contrast to his English predecessor Stuart Baxter, who won two league titles in three years but regularly clashed with Bobby Motaung‚ often over player recruitment. Chiefs’ bigwigs spent hours in board meetings last week‚ reviewing the positioning of the club‚ its failures in the transfer market and its loss of its prime position in the domestic market‚ out-muscled over the last decade by Mamelodi Sundowns. – TimesLIVE, additional reporting by Mark Gleeson