Golden Arrows coach Mabhuti Khenyeza has disclosed the advantages that local coaches have over their European counterparts in the PSL.
Khenyeza is mentoring Abafana Bes’thende as the sole head coach after his former colleague Vusumuzi Vilakazi, whom he was a co-coach with, left the club last month.
The former striker has also managed TS Galaxy when they were still in the second-tier. He has also served as an assistant coach both at AmaZulu FC and Maritzburg United.
He believes local coaches should be doing better than the European tacticians who know less about SA players.
According to the former Kaizer Chiefs forward, the local coaches are privileged to know the backgrounds, families, cultures, and good and bad times of the local players.
With these, Khenyeza says the SA-born coaches have everything to get the best out of the players.
KHENYEZA ON WHY LOCAL COACHES SHOULD BE DOING BETTER THEN THEIR EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS
“All in all, I’ve been in football for a while, I played for more than 15 years at the highest level and I understand everything,” said Khenyeza.
“I understand not only playing but even the backgrounds of the players where they come from. The culture because those things are important when you’re dealing with the players.
“And then their upbringing, it’s not something new. If a coach from Europe can do it here, we as [local coaches] have a big advantage because sometimes you get to coach a player that you knew when they were still ten years old.
“When you know their families, when you know their ups and downs, when you know where they’re coming from…that’s why I’m saying the seat can be new but it’s not new to me at all because I’ve been involved in this for some time.
“Most of the coaches that are here [in the Carling Knockout Launch], they coached me before. I know what they were coaching us on before. When they face me, I can deal [with them].
“If you’re in football for a long time, you will always remember things like these.”
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