Marumo Gallants coach unhappy with treatment of local coaches in South Africa
Marumo Gallants coach Dan ‘Dance’ Melesela has hit out at South Africans over their obsession with foreign coaches even if they do not offer more than what the locals can.
Malesela seems to be feeling the pressure after watching his Gallants team lose three straight league matches to Kaizer Chiefs, Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows with questions already being raised about his position.
It is that very concern that has left him disappointed as he feels it is too early in the season to start raising such questions when, according to him, his team has been playing well even if they are yet to win.
“Why do we always think when somebody loses three matches, something is going to happen?” posed Malesela.
“Who would not be encouraged to say that surely with this team we will not be relegated, or anything like that? If the supporters who were behind the goals on the south of the stadium are clapping, who are we not to be encouraged?
Should South African coaches be given more protection?
“You want to start a new chapter but for what? Is the team playing badly, are we not looking like a team that can win matches? This is a team that can win matches, so why do we start panicking?
“I saw an article saying I am swimming in the mud and another said I am skating on thin ice.”
“You play two matches and there are articles like that. Why do we like a situation where people are fired from their jobs?”
The veteran coach feels calls for him to be sacked are being made so early because his South African but a foreign coach in a similar position would be given time to turn things around.
“We encourage good things. Let me say, ‘My team is playing really badly and I must not be here,' that is another story. But if you see my team doing well, you protect those things, that’s why I am worried because we don’t protect our people here at home,” he went on.
Dance feels a ‘Vichivic or Vuvuvich’ would be treated differently
“There is this funny thing in South Africa where we like these funny names. So long as it’s got a Vichivic or Vuvuvich, we seem to be excited. Dan Malesela sounds too ordinary, maybe that’s because I am from Boekenhout.
“For a local coach to make a statement, he must come from Europe. Must we find it easy to release a local coach but when Vichivic comes here we give him 10 or 20 matches?
“When he [Vichivic] struggles, you phone Dan Malesela to come help the team. I didn’t want to go into that but I get worried when somebody starts to ask me the question of my job security.”
Malesela has a chance to record his first win of the season and take the pressure off when Gallants host AmaZulu, who are also winless this season, on Saturday.
