By Ayanda Nyuswa
Gagasi FM Sports specialist Mike Makaab says Kaizer Chiefs need to give the reportedly in coming coach Nasreddine Nabi a chance to build a competitive team when he takes over as head coach of the club. According to media reports the Tunisian tactician is the leading candidate for the vacant head coach position at Naturena. Chiefs parted ways with Molefi Ntseki in October 2023 after a string of inconsistent results and roped in Cavin Johnson as care taker coach for the rest of the 2023/24 season. Johnson’s stint didn’t bring any improvement to Amakhosi as they finished in 10th position, their lowest finish in the PSL era and extended their trophy drought to 9 years.
Nabi is currently at Moroccan side FAR Rabat until the end of the season after announcing he will leave the club. FAR narrowly missed out on the Botola Pro league to Raja Casablanca who went the entire season unbeaten, but are still in contention for the Moroccan Throne Cup. The 58-year old enjoyed great success with Tanzanian giants Young Africans leading them to back-to-back trebles and reached the CAF Confederation Cup during his stay between 2021 and 2023.
Nabi has been hot on the lips of South African football fans with media reports suggesting his arrival at Naturena is imminent as many believe he could be the man to reawaken the sleeping giant of South African football. Speaking on Extratime on Gagasi FM Mike Makaab believes the incoming coach needs to be given a chance and time to mould a team that will be competitive.
“They’ve (Chiefs) got to give Nabi a chance. You have to look at Jurgen Klopp I thought he was at Liverpool for 3 or 4 years only to understand that he joined in 2015, 9 years at Liverpool. It took him some time to build a competitive Liverpool but they had faith in his process. If you see that a football coach knows what they are doing and understands the process and is making progress in that, you’ve got to give them an opportunity, so I am excited about Nabi at Kaizer Chiefs,” said Makaab.
Makaab believes Nabi will have a good foundation to build on when he arrives at Naturena, as he will inherit a group of players that have great potential especially with the young players who come from the development ranks.
“I am of the opinion that Chiefs don’t have a bad squad at all, I think they have a very interesting squad of players. They’ve got some exciting youngsters we have named them, Mfundo Vilakazi, Mduduzi Shabalala, Wandile Duba, Samkelo Zwane, Donnay Jansen and a few others at the fringes. So that’s exciting when your development is starting to produce players of that quality. They’ve also signed some very interesting players, good players don’t become bad players over night, and you know a lot of discussion goes around saying maybe they haven’t settled in, in their new environment. I believe that when a football coach assembles a football team, quality will come to the surface, good coaches look at what they have, they look at the strengths and weaknesses of the players they have. A good football coach will assess what he has in the building and will play a style of football that will suit the players he’s got in the building,” Makaab concluded.
