Johannesburg - It certainly looks like Kaizer Chiefs’ new coach Arthur Zwane is intent on a major squad overhaul as he looks to rebuild the club into a giant of South African football.
The AmaKhosi confirmed the departures of goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi, Leonardo Castro, Kearyn Baccus, Samir Nurkovic, Lazarous Kambole, Labogang Manyama, Daniel Cardoso and goalkeeper coach Lee Baxter on Wednesday alone.
The club also announced that defensive midfielder Anthony Agay is available for transfer.
Serbian international Nurkovic ended a three-year spell with the AmaKhosi. At the height of his time with the club, he was regarded as one of the best finishers domestically and ended his debut campaign in South Africa with 14 goals.
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Nurkovic struggled last season as he netted just one league goal. He has since been linked with a shock move to last season’s surprise package Royal AM, though the Durban club’s CEO Sinky Mnisi has played down the rumours.
From all of the players to have been released, the biggest surprise was Akpeyi. The Nigerian made 12 league appearances for Chiefs last season and had been on the club’s books for three years after joining from Chippa United. All in all, Akpeyi made 69 appearances for Chiefs and will be remembered for being the man to end Itumeleng Khune’s long-term reign as first-choice goalkeeper of the Soweto giants.
With Khune now completely out of the first-team picture at Chiefs, the club will now likely have to bring in one or two goalkeepers during this off season to provide competition and support to Bruce Bvuma.
Another release from Chiefs that can be considered somewhat surprising was Cardoso who spent seven years with the club after arriving from Free State Stars in 2015. The 33-year-old was active last season, making 22 league appearances.
The veteran defender recently indicated that he was willing to stay on at Chiefs but had interest from other domestic clubs and internationally.
“I hope to stay on. There are a lot of teams that are interested in SA and a few clubs abroad so I will wait until talks are gone under the water,” he is quoted as having said.
Castro joined Chiefs from Sundowns in a surprise transfer back in January 2018 and leaves after four-and-a-half seasons. Big things were expected from the Colombian, especially after he reunited with former Masandawana attacking partner Khama Billiat. In the end, he ultimately failed to hit the heights that he achieved at Sundowns.
Australia-raised Baccus joined Chiefs from Melbourne City in 2019 and was expected to add something different to the Chiefs squad upon returning to the land of his birth. Baccus was a versatile player who could be deployed across the midfield and who also spent time in France on the books of Le Mans.
The agent of the 30-year-old - Mike Makaab - has since indicated that he has received offers to play both domestically and in Asia.
Kambole joined Chiefs in 2019 from Zambian outfit ZESCO United and ultimately his time at Naturena was a failure. All in all, he scored just two goals from 46 games for Chiefs, a paltry return for a centre-forward. His departure is not a surprise but it is bizarre that the Amakhosi held onto him for so long.
The 31-year-old Manyama leaves Chiefs after joining in 2018 from Turkish outfit Konyaspor. The attacking midfielder had seen his stock decline last season and was limited to just 10 league appearances.
The 45-year-old Baxter who is the son of ex Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter had also been on the books of the Amakhosi as a goalkeeper coach since 2018. Prior to working with the Amakhosi, he spent time with AIK Solna, Genclerbirligi, SuperSport United and Danish club AGF Aarhus.
While it comes as no surprise that Chiefs are choosing to part ways with several players, some will question whether it was rather hasty to release them all at once. Some of the players on the list are still competitive and the club could have perhaps used them as leverage to secure targets from other teams.