Ah. A new broom. Aren’t they the best?
They sweep so cleanly. The stiff bristles get into the corners and leaves your floor sparkling.
But if you don’t take care of your broom, it’s going to get vol hare and dust and then it’s just going be carry dirt to new spots.
And this is the same with a new coach.
SHOCK: Coach Benni McCarthy exit from Cape Town City was a shock. Picture: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix.
Cape Town City decided that they were getting a new broom and tossed out Benni McCarthy for Dutch veteran Jan Olde Riekerink this week.
City were definitely stuck in a rut in the latter Benni days. Two wins in 18 matches is relegation form.
But fundamentally Benni’s football philosophy was admirable.
They went out to entertain the fans with attacking football. Injuries in defence, though, undermined to the point where wins were coming anymore.
Their 5-3 win over Polokwane on Wednesday night was the last of the Benni era. And we will see the ideas of Riekerink now come to the fore.
Although the 56-year-old is a man steeped in the Ajax way of doing things, he is a disciple of the Louis van Gaal school.
TRADITION: Riekerink is well versed in Dutch traditional play, having coached Ajax Amsterdam for many years. Picture: Eddie Keogh/Reuters.
What does that mean? Think of the difference between Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Van Gaal’s Manchester United.
Or better yet, think of Ajax Amsterdam 10 years ago and the team now.
Last May, they were Champions League semifinalists and the talk of Europe.
And for that to happen Riekerink was purged from the youth system in 2011 when Johan Cruyff started his final stint at the club before his death in 2016, re-aligning the Amsterdamers to his ideas again.
Riekerink will obviously have his own ideas, but he is a man influenced by Van Gaal just like Pep is influenced by Cruyff.
City will take on a different character and it means that people will react differently to the football.
When goals become fewer, winning becomes more important. So margins will become finer, in the scoreline and the goodwill of the fans.
City is after all meant to be chairman John Comitis’ idea to express the Cape’s best football traditions. And they fail to do that under Riekerink, City will be the poorer for it.