Muhsin Ertugral's first stint with Kaizer Chiefs was his most successful, but he can still remember how painful it was to leave the club after a discussion he had with chairman Kaizer Motaung. Soccer Laduma caught up with the experienced mentor to talk about the well known days of 'operation vat alles'.
How the move happened
I came in 1999, when we were looking at the facilities for the World XI match for Nelson Mandela. At the time, I was not working. O had stopped working for one of the biggest clubs in Turkey, Trabzanspor. Because I knew South Africa from the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, and I had already have a couple of chats with Jomo and also with Mr (Kaizer) Motaung. It came that he probably knew me and at the time he was also looking for a coach. That's how we came together.
First day on the job
I saw the team playing and I saw that it was a massive club. I had been with Trabzanspor in Turker, which is a very big club. There were players like Doctor Khumalo, Thabo Mooki and Brian Baloyi. It was really formidable players and they were fantastic players to work with and you could build a team around them. We discussed things and I took the job. It was a professional setup as everything was well organised from every point of view. I came with my own ideas obviously and brought a little bit of a difference from the tactical part, the training part. We brought in Elsa Storm, a lady who was never in South African football. There were different elements coming in and the players had to get used to that. Our regeneration was on the bike on in the water, so it was at a level of international football. The chairman was open for it. I remember we spoke about how we were going to convince the players to a new way of thinking. It was nice
My assistant coach
My first assistant was Terror (Sephoa). He was there already and later on we took Steve Komphela and Ace Khuse. Then later on we took Farouk Khan. There is no coach in the world who can do it alone. I saw a great coach in the youth section, which was Farouk Khan. The thinking was close to what I do. I used to train the youth section in the afternoon because I wanted to see what they were doing. Farouk was a person who completed everything that I wanted to do. He was an ideal assistant coach for me at the time. Ace also understood me really well. It was great to have him around because he knew my thinking and cultural background. It could transform to the players as well. He was in Turkey as a player and respected, so he understood me. It was the same with Steve Komphela. It was actually a masterpiece because we had people who knew Turkish football and knew my way of thinking. We came together and it clicked. We implemented modern football.
Who was in the team
Of course, I remember. We needed somebody on the left and we brought in Marco Mthembu. I was not happy with centre back because I wanted us to play from the back and I wanted the backline a bit higher up because we wanted to do the pressing moments when we lost the ball. We had Patrick Mabedi and we felt he was alone, so we brought in Gary Goldstone, who was a young player at the time. He came in an was able to fit in like a glove. We had Cyril Nzama at right back. We had Arthur Zwane in front on the right side and I could change the system at times and that's one of the reasons we were able to beat Jomo (Cosmos) 5-0 in the legendary cup final. Stanton Fredericks is someone who can tell you a lot about this. He was one of the best players I worked with, who was versatile. We had Nhlanhla Kubheka, who was a marvelous player. He was one of the most talented players I worked with, but he was unfortunate with some injuries. I saw him as the next Lucas Radebe, because I saw him as someone who could play as a centre back later on his career because we used him as a number six. We had Patrick Mbuthu who was already in the Olympic team. There was Jabu Pule, who was a great player. We had Isaac Mabotsa as well. We could find the combination between the youngsters and experienced players like Thabo Mooki.
Who was the captain and why
It was Doctor Khumalo, firstly. Doc was an influential player. He won the AFCON in 1996 and has done so much for South African football. It was important at the time to talk to Doc about the direction we were going in. He was influential and was able to direct the players on the field because sometimes the players would not hear you because it was really loud. We played great football and we would have full stadiums.
Best thing about the job
When you coach certain types of teams, the demand and DNA is winning. You need to fulfill the millions of expectations from the supporters. It's like a Formula 1 race. You have the car and you need to get the car through the finish line. Everyone can play an instrument, but you need to bring in the fine tuning. You work with the best players in the country and you need to mould the tactical aspects and you need to make sure that the team performs week in and out because everyone wants to beat you. It means it's a challenge for you to fulfil the expectations of being at the highest level. The challenge for me was to win and you need to play with style. That for me was a good challenge.
Worst thing about the job
When you lose, obviously. It doesn't matter if you are a small or big team, but in a big team, the loss is bigger than what it is at a small team. Losing games was difficult. I don't like it, even to this day. But I had a wonderful chairman and sometimes we would have discussions, not only about football, but about social aspects, life and culture. That also eases the job. When you take decisions, you won't take decisions based on the on the field issues. For instance, in the beginning, when we were in the bus after a loss, the players would start to sing about 20 or 30 minutes into the drive. It made me angry. My blood was boiling because I thought they were not serious. I was going crazy that we lost the game, but they were singing. But later on I understood that it was their way of taking out the stress. It's not that they were not serious. They were releasing the stress and you need to understand those elements.
Players I was unable to sign
There were a couple of players we wanted to sign. There was (Benedict) Vilakazi. He was a very good player. Another one I can remember is Tico-Tico Bucuane. They were expensive and, secondly, in demand. Most of the players we wanted, we got. It was not a problem in those years. When (Siyabonga) Nomvethe left, there was a big gap for us. We wanted to get players like that to replace him, but at that time it was not possible. That was a challenge for us back then.
Difficult conversation with the chairman
Never. The chairman is not a person that gets involved (too much). The chairman has a fine football brain. What I loved is that every morning we had tea together and we discussed football and life. When I did some mistakes, he pointed me in a direction and I learnt a lot of elements from him. I can't remember having bad conversations. He was someone I could knock on his door and ask him what he though. Sometimes he would say 'what do I pay you for? You should think'. It was great to work with someone who has so much football knowledge.
Last day on the job
In my opinion, it was a mistake, because I didn't understand what the chairman wanted to do. We had so much success and leaving Chiefs was extremely painful. I was a young coach and we had so much success and we had so many youngsters that we brought up. The pressure mounted on me at the time and any big club goes through difficult moments. At the time, he wanted to give me a little bit of a break. I misunderstood that and, sometimes as coaches, we run with too much ego. I think I misunderstood him. Years later, he came to my house in Cape Town and we discussed that and he was like 'you didn't understand what I wanted to do'. That's one of the decisions I regret. I took the decision to leave. I remember when I walked out of Chiefs it was very painful for me. I remember I had tea with the chairman on my last day at Chiefs and I had tears in my eyes. The players were like sons to me, so it was a challenge. I was a young coach and I learned how to behave. But it opened other doors for me to grow.
