Middendorp Lifts Lid On Chiefs' 2019/20 Title Collapse

Read: Exclusive: Middendorp Lashes Out At Referee!  

In the aftermath, Middendorp was quickly relieved of his duties despite finishing a commendable second on the log and he was asked whether he thought the club made an emotional decision.

The German tactician says their course to win the title was not helped by Chiefs not beefing up the squad with "two or three key players" and revealed that a number of players were not at home, when they were supposed to be training during the Covid-19 restrictions.

"No idea, I was not really busy with it, that's the worst that can happen when you handle, make decisions guided by emotional intelligence in soccer, in professional sports," Middendorp said on Marawa Sports Worldwide.

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"If you have not seen what we have done, it is not really making big investment at the time just to bring in two, three key players just to make sure the number of players not absolutely injury prone anymore like (Eric) Mathoho, (Lebogang) Manyama, Rama (Mphahlele), a lot of players were injured when I came in.

"We got lost no doubt about it, now we can talk about why when the break came in, the lockdown came in, more or less six, seven weeks later we had to start going into the bubble and finalize the season.

"Now what happened in the seven, eight weeks you had no control as a coach, everybody was online, everybody was at home, wherever. We thought they were at 'home' but as everybody knows, nobody is talking about (it) but a number of players were not at home, simple and easy," he said.
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The veteran coach was asked whether the players were out 'drinking' and suggested that the players did not take responsibility as professional players to stick to the ambitions of the club of winning the league title.

"That is what you say. You can drink Coca-Cola, you can drink water, you can drink wine, it's also a question everybody must understand, 'I'm a professional footballer with a clear goal to go and win the league'," he replied.

"That's not my question to answer. Everybody must know what he was doing, what everybody contributed in this moment to be finally at the end of the day in the second position," he added.

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