Kaizer Chiefs: 3 reasons Amakhosi stuck with Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze

Kaizer Chiefs finally confirmed the departure of coach Nasreddine Nabi and announced that his assistants Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze will be in charge until the end of the season.

Chiefs parted ways with Nabi at the start of his second season for reasons yet to be revealed but his trusted men have now been handed the reigns at Naturena, a surprising decision given many had hoped the Glamour Boys would look elsewhere.

Ben Youssef and Kaze are now tasked with bringing success with Chiefs now contesting in the PSL, CAF Confederation Cup and Nedbank Cup.

But why did Chiefs opt to retain Nabi’s assistants over bringing in a new coach?

Need to maintain continuity

It seems like the powers that be at Chiefs were content with what Nabi was doing at the club and did not see the need to break it up.

Handing his lieutenants the job means they feel the men who were helping Nabi are well-versed with what they are seeking to achieve at the club rather than starting afresh.

Chiefs have also signed 11 new players, who are being integrated to the squad, and they were brought in because they align with Nabi’s philosophy and another coach would have perhaps cast some of them aside and asked for his own signings which would have proved costly.  

Ben Youssef and Kaze’s relationship with players

Meanwhile, the other reason for keeping Ben Youssef and Kaze could be due to their familiarity with the players’ strengths and weaknesses.

Instead of bringing in a new coach that would take time to understand the players, which would have an impact on results, Chiefs decided to stick with the two coaches as they have been working closely with the players and are also credited with the upturn in form of some of them, such as Sibongiseni Mthethwa and Aden McCarthy.

Chiefs seem to feel the two can get the best out of the squad even though they have managed one win, two draws and two defeats since taking temporary charge, and it remains to be seen if they will be a success.

High cost of sacking entire technical bench

Kaizer Chiefs’ parting of ways with Nabi appears not to have been down to results but rather something else and that is why the club opted to keep faith in his assistants.

While observers would have loved to see a totally different coaching setup, Chiefs might have calculated the cost of doing away with the entire bench midseason and found it too expensive.

Unlike other PSL sides, who have a local on the bench if the head coach is foreign, Nabi insisted on coming with his own men and it means a breakup would see all of them leave.

Compensating the entire technical bench would have been costly given they have just started the second season of their two-year deal and Chiefs opted for the cheaper option given Nabi alone would have commanded close to or over R7 million in severance pay.