Benni McCarthy was too inexperienced to take Cape Town City to the next level.
That’s the explanation club owner John Comitis gave for sacking the Cape legend in November after three years in charge.
After a promising start to this coaching career; winning the MTN8 in 2018 after finishing runner-up the year before, the former Bafana Bafana striker was fired after a run of two wins in 18 matches last year.
According to Comitis, results were just the tip of the iceberg of the problems at the club with McCarthy at the helm and new boss Jan Olde Riekerink is busy sorting them out.
And he revealed that McCarthy, who boasts the highest coaching qualification in the sport, just didn’t have a grip of the players in an interview with Robert Marawa.
MASSIVE STRUGGLES: Cape Town City have sukkeled this season. Picture: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix.
The City chief says: “For me, there is always a reason why a team is not performing.
“It’s never one thing, but these things only surface when the results are not there.
“While you’re getting results, a lot of things get blown over and you leave things that you shouldn’t and don’t discipline matters that you should.
“And if you measure yourself before things go badly, that’s want happens in this game.
“Now you bring someone in with a lot of discipline, lots of instructions and it takes some time for the players to get to that.
“He has to change things a lot that didn’t seem like a problem in the past.”
While the arrival of a new coach didn’t see the immediate turnaround in results, Riekerink’s first win coming in his fifth game in charge after starting Sunday’s match rock-bottom of the PSL, Comitis is adamant the former Ajax Amsterdam and Chinese FA’s youth development boss can turn City into a PSL powerhouse.
CHANGES: Jan Olde Riekerink. Picture: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix.
He adds: “If you asked me if I would do this again, I would 100 percent employ Benni again at the time that I did.
“I think the club needed more structure on the technical side, with more experience to look at the more long-term, sustainable model.
“You must understand that we don’t have the financial muscle that the other clubs have.
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— Cape Town City FC (@CapeTownCityFC)
“We have to look at other means to keep ourselves relevant.
“It’s a pity things went the way they did, but we had to part ways this early.”