On getting knocked out of the CAF Confederation Cup
The entire experience of playing in this tournament was just normal, nothing different to what we have experienced. Obviously, we were drawn against three North African teams (USM Alger from Algeria, Modern Future from Egypt and Al Hilal from Libya) and that meant a lot of travelling for the team. But overall, I think it was a good experience for everyone in the team. When the tournament started, our intentions were to blood in youngsters. That is always going to be our intention because of our (domestic football) programme. I mean, you can't do what we are doing – we are playing our home matches in Polokwane.
The club was quite happy for me to field youngsters, that was the plan. That is what we have to do in order to balance things between domestic football and African football. We have to use our squad and we also need to see who we are playing, who we're playing the next game and then plan around the fixtures in terms of how we are going to go about doing it. We played this past weekend, travelled to Cape Town to play Cape Town City three days later, fly back to Joburg on Thursday, travel to Algeria on Friday to play USM Alger and then back on Tuesday. We have to play against Polokwane City on Wednesday and then play AmaZulu FC on Saturday. I mean, how else are you going to do that? You must also consider that when we travel to Algeria, we have to go via Dubai, play a match in Algeria. And when we fly back, we have to fly back via Dubai again and arrive back in Johannesburg on Tuesday and then play on Wednesday. How are you going to do that? You can't do that!
On last weekend's match
This past weekend, we drew 1-1 at home to Modern Future. We should have won the game. We had plenty of opportunities to score. When I look back, I think every game we should have won. When we played Modern Future in Egypt and lost 1-0, we should have beaten them. We lost 2-1 to Al Hilal, we should have beaten them. When we played against USM Alger at home, we lost 2-0, but we should have beaten them as well. But that's what it is, these are very experienced teams with a lot of experienced players. But it was good for us. A learning curve. When we beat Al Hilal in December, it was like all games against North African teams, it's not a proper game of football. You have to be there to see it. When we flew to Libya to play Al Hilal, we went to Dubai and then took another connecting flight to Cairo before arriving there. There were collapsed buildings, it's a warzone. They hadn't played there for a while, so we went there and played in an astroturf. But we have to learn – you never lose, you learn. So, the players have learnt a lot.
On youngsters getting valuable experience
There were lots of players who got experience. This past weekend against Modern Future, we had seven players from the DStv Diski (Challenge) team – they all learned a valuable lesson. But obviously, our league status is more important. When I coached Bidvest Wits in CAF cup competitions, it was a little bit of a different experience because we had a more experienced squad and a lot stronger squad all round, whereas now we have a lot of younger players and we have to protect them, look after them and build them. It's a different experience. In saying that, you cannot… unless you have a bigger squad, then you can go in all fronts. For now, let's try and do well in domestic football and then we can concentrate on that (CAF club competitions). With a few months to go now before the end of the season, our aim is to try and have a good run in the Nedbank Cup and also try to get into Africa for next season.
If we can get back into African cup competitions, it will help us tremendously because it will give us another chance to play a few more games and blood in a few more players. That's the big aim. But we really want to have a good run in the Nedbank Cup. I would love to win in Africa, I would love to say, 'Let's go for it.' I was there once in the semifinal of the CAF Champions League and obviously we know what happened after that. With youngsters who are 18 and 19 years old, it's really difficult to say (how long it will take us to reach that point). North African teams are very experienced, from throw-ins, to corner kicks, to falling down and delaying the game. That is how they play, which is in their nature and their culture. And obviously that is a very corrupt culture. We don't want to play like that, we play properly and we try to do the right things, but when you play North African teams, that's what you get. It's sad, but we learn. But we don't play like that. We don't want our goalkeeper to fall down after five minutes and delay the game like this past weekend. Goalkeeper lying around… we don't play football like that.
On not being able to sit on the bench earlier
It was ridiculous. Absolute ridiculous. I mean, I see some of the opposition coaches, where they come from, and they were allowed to sit on the bench. I would love to know where they got their licence. It's also happening in our junior football, you've got top, top coaches who are working in the junior set-up and can't sit on the bench in the local GDL (Gauteng Development League). It's crazy, man, it's crazy. Yes, people need to have qualifications, we need to go to coaching courses – but you need to have courses available for people to go on. But we are doing it now and I'm almost done (with the CAF A Licence), I've already done half of the course and we have two weeks left. We are going through it and it's all part of football. Meeting new people, making new friends – it's been good.
On SuperSport retaining players and not selling them
When you work in this financial market at the moment, the costs have gone up, the wages have gone up and the standard of living has gone up. So, obviously, clubs need to work on budgets. Well, certain clubs. You have to work on a budget and at the same time try to be competitive. So, you can go into the market and players will end up leaving you all the time. It's frustrating of course, but it's part of the game and we just have to… I know my parameters that are working for me. How do you get judged as a coach? If you are going to be judged on winning, it's really difficult, you know. I went through exactly the same thing (of losing players to other clubs) earlier in my career. It was exactly the same thing. You look at the national team, which is excelling, and what is happening there. But anyway, that is football.
Gavin Hunt,
SuperSport United head coach
