Kaizer Chiefs depending on free agents? ‘Amakhosi have used millions of Rands’ on quality!

In the last decade or so, Kaizer Chiefs have been accused of holding their hand back when it comes to spending, instead opting to go for free agents.

Critics have blamed the trend, insisting it has contributed to struggles to win trophies since the quality has been compromised by the management. In the last 11 years, the Glamour Boys have won one trophy, the Nedbank Cup, which happened in the 2024/25 season under the then-coach Nasreddine Nabi.

This season, Chiefs are almost guaranteed another fruitless campaign following their poor run, especially in the last six games, where they have lost four to crash out of the Nedbank Cup and the CAF Confederation Cup.

Three Premier Soccer League losses in a row have also seen the team trail joint leaders Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns by 14 points. However, the free agents are not to be blamed, according to Sporting Director Kaizer Motaung, who insists the scouting team led by Tera Maliwa has greatly improved.

I wanna debunk this issue of free agents – Kaizer Chiefs SD

I think one thing people have raised their frustrations, and I understand why, at the same time, same supporters, us as a club really do see strength in the squad we have, a very young dynamic squad, with some very good experience,” he told MSW.

“We also have players who have experience on the continent and I wanna debunk this issue of free players. We, in the past few years, have been really active in the transfer market. We’ve spent millions on Rands to make sure we can reinforce the squad.

“It’s just been a situation of, yes, we can acknowledge the performances where we have gotten wrong. There are players that maybe we brought in, who have not been the right fit,” Motaung stated.

Some have failed to perfrom at Chiefs

“No, it’s not about singling out any person, but there’s people who have come donned the jersey and found it difficult to perform to their best. That’s a fact, we take our hand up and we acknowledge that fact. At the same time, our analysis and recruitment and procedure is very detailed; it’s not done by one person,” Motaung Jr added.

“We work very closely with the technical team, with data, our analysis team and our head of recruitment. And one thing that people need to know is we have a very strong youth development structure that also forms part of recruitment.

“We’ve brought in people there like coach Vela [Khumalo], even coach [Dillon] Sheppard who have a keen eye in also bringing players at youth level and various levels that are gonna fulfill a long-term strategy,” he concluded.