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Kaitano Tembo

ZIMBABWEAN coach Kaitano Tembo has been overlooked for the head coaching role at SuperSport United, with the South African side appointing Eric Tinkler as the boss of their technical department. The former Dynamos centreback has been holding fort at the club in the absence of Stuart Baxter, who left to join Bafana Bafana.

Tembo has been with SuperSport for sometime now and some felt his time had come when he led the club to a 2-2 draw against TP Mazembe in a CAF Confederation Cup match in Lubumbashi last weekend.

But SuperSport United yesterday unveiled Tinkler as their head coach.

Tinkler also explained his decision to move back to Gauteng despite a fruitful maiden season with start-up club Cape Town City.

He explained that the decision took him a few days after learning of the Tshwane side’s interest, but is confident that it was the right one based on the track record of former coaches such as Pitso Mosimane and Gavin Hunt.

“Took me a couple of days to weigh up the options and understand what type of club SuperSport is.

“I think it’s a club every coach would like to come and coach, if you look at Pitso, he started his career here and we see where he is now. Gavin Hunt (is another example).

“For me it became a no-brainer to come to SuperSport, that’s besides the fact that they’re an extremely ambitious and successful club — they’ve won league titles.

“I’ve said this before, I’m an ambitious coach, I want to achieve things and I see myself doing that here.”

Reflecting on his season at the Citizens, he said: “I had a great season at Cape Town City, but focus now is obviously on SuperSport, and taking it to the next level.”

Meanwhile, club CEO Stan Matthews explained that the deal between the two clubs was done in good faith, joking that there would be no DRC cases to resolve differences — as was the case between Polokwane City and Bloemfontein Celtic.

“Our situation is much more straightforward than that (Luc Eymael).

“Once Stuart’s move to Bafana was finalised, we got together with the chairman and board, banged around a few names that were potential (candidates) both locally and internationally,” he clarified.

“During the course of the discussions, Eric was one of the names on the list and I was tasked to sound him out to see if he was available, what kind of terms it would be on and whether he was interested or not.

“As soon as we became aware that there was a situation that we could trigger a buy-out, it was a path with the least resistance for us, because we don’t want unpleasantness, that’s not the way we conduct ourselves as a club.”

Matthews added that he sympathises with the Cape Town outfit’s boss John Comitis, as he felt the same when SAFA came to poach Stuart Baxter away to Bafana last month.

“I feel for Cape Town City because I know what they are going through, we had it.

“My whole life was turned upside down when SAFA came knocking and took Staurt when I thought I had a head coach until 2021,” he said.

“So I feel a lot of empathy with Cape Town City and in particular John Comitis, who I’ve served with on the PSL exco for over 10 years, he’s a colleague and friend.

“It’s not an ideal situation but I spoke to him personally and I went through the front door.

“We’ve cleared up our club-to-club agreement amicably, so there won’t be any DRC case here.

“There’s no hard feelings and I spoke to John two or three times today, and our relationship is good, this is the nature of professional football.” — Sports Reporter/Kick-Off.