Durban — The 2022/2023 campaign saw Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs dismantle and reconstruct the club’s structures, personnel and overall ambitions as they sought a long-term solution to end their eight-year drought without a trophy.
The Naturena outfit introduced ‘fresh blood’ and one of the club’s loyal sons at the helm as the head coach, who was tasked with not only pioneering the new-look Chiefs but also assembling a team on the same principles of the golden generations of yesteryear.
With Zwane at the wheel (assisted by Dillon Sheppard), the club’s management have had to ward off swarms of Zwane detractors in the form of fans as they seek to protect the 49-year-old long enough to bear the fruits of their labour.
However, as apprehension continues to rise with every trophy won by either Mamelodi Sundowns or Orlando Pirates, it begs the question: What would define success for Amakhosi and their coach Zwane at the end of the current season?
A club of Chiefs’ stature has been richly built on the groundworks of consistent silverware over several decades, however, the reality of a huge drop-off from the extraordinary standards set by Sundowns has forced a reconsideration of those expectations as they attempt to work their way back up.
It’s easy for one to decipher the current campaign as one of failure considering Chiefs currently trail Sundowns by a whopping 22 points, however the two-point difference between Amakhosi and second placed SuperSport United also offers a different perspective.
Although under criticism, Zwane is still in line to qualify the Glamour Boys for next year’s CAF Champions league campaign, a position the club has clearly marked as a priority ahead of every season moving forth.
Zwane and his men are also gearing up to take on Royal AM in the quarter-final stage of Nedbank Cup, which optimists could describe as a possibility to end the club’s trophy drought.
In reality, if any faithful Chiefs supporter was offered a second place finish and a Nedbank cup gold medal at the beginning of the season, they would’ve probably bit your hand off.
A large majority of Zwane’s most pessimistic critics have used style of play and an ever-changing philosophy as the sole measure of his work so far. However if Zwane achieves the above mentioned, those negatives would most definitely subside for a while.
If Zwane leads Chiefs to a trophy and CAF spot, on top of introducing future stars like Mduduzi Shabalala and Siyanda Zwane into the first team, it would be incredibly difficult to raise any kind of failure towards his long-term plans for the club.
IOL Sport