Walter Rautmann has commented on football coaching these days compared to his time, while he also remembers being tortured by police officers who stopped him from doing what he loves.
The well-travelled coach feels that coaches at the big clubs are having it easy because of the budget allocated to them and the luxury of signing the best players available.
The mentor believes that a coach has no reason to fail at clubs like Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns and would like to see them proving themselves as the so-called small clubs as well in order for him to rate them.
The Good
"I always talk about coaching in South Africa and I like it because I am passionate about it. Let me tell you about coaching, I have watched coaches in this country moving around between Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns because those are the top teams. Those are the clubs with all the money, facilities and the best players some of whom are sitting on the bench. I am talking about players that can make two national teams. It is very easy to coach there because you've got everything you need to be successful," said Rautmann.
The Bad
"When I coached at the highest level in this country, I had to deal with coaching teams at the bottom of the league. I would get appointed with 12 games before the end of the season and I had to first change everything in order to get the team out of danger. I had to make a winning team in two weeks and not in two years. These other coaches who would go to big clubs would be given two years to build while I had to work for two weeks to make sure that the team was ready to fight against relegation. I didn't have an assistant coach and I had to do everything myself from training goalkeepers like Shadrack Biemba at AmaZulu and Cyprian Maimane at Witbank Black Aces. In my 30 years of coaching, I never bought a single player and I never spent even once cent on players at any of the teams I coached. I had to make players for myself from a young age," the coach said.
The Ugly
"In the '70s, I used to coach in the townships with the aim of producing good players from those youngsters that were there. I used to coach in Soweto, KwaThema, Umlazi in Durban and everywhere else. I did that on my own and without getting any money in return because I believed that there were talented youngsters out there who deserved best coaching. I remember getting arrested in Soweto during those years of apartheid because I was caught coaching there. I was arrested for being in the township and the police took me to John Vorster Square (now known as the Johannesburg Central Police Station) and they beat me up and tortured me. I was lucky because I was coaching Moroka Swallows and the chairman of the club was also a policeman and his name was Jack Sello. He was a big policeman there and some Swallows supporters had told him that I had been arrested and he came to save me. You know those stories from back then, and I was told by the police of the time that if they caught me again, I would be killed," concluded Rautmann.
Do you agree with Rautmann about coaching in Mzansi?
