Eugene Zwane, father of Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Samkelo Zwane, has spoken out about the “unfortunate” situation regarding his son’s promotion to the senior team and that of other club’s academy graduates.
Zwane, who’s the former Orlando Pirates winger, was speaking in an exclusive interview with FARPost.
He was asked to give his assessment on his son’s journey so far since earning promotion to the senior team in the previous season.
He expressed his belief that Samkelo has what it takes to compete at a high level for some time and has the potential to play in Europe eventually.
However, Eugene offered a candid assessment, acknowledging that Samkelo, along with Nkosingiphile Ngcobo, Mduduzi Shabalala, and Happy Mashiane, were unfortunate to be promoted during a challenging period for the club.
He explained that the pressure from fans demanding trophies has often led coaches to prioritise experienced players, resulting in limited playing time for the young talents who are then unable to fully showcase their abilities.
EUGENE ZWANE SAYS CHIEFS YOUNG PLAYERS NEED MORE TIME TO PROVE THEMSELVES
“On the basis of natural ability, I think he’s [Samkelo Zwane] got potential to play for a long time and remain competitive at a high level,” said Eugene Zwane.
“I think he even has to potential to go play in bigger leagues overseas. Unfortunately, he got promoted at a time when Kaizer Chiefs was going through some difficulties.
“A club that has history and heritage of dominating the local scenes, struggling to win cups, getting knocked out early [in competitions].
“You know that puts a lot of pressure on the technical team. Therefore, as you’ve seen they tend to rely a lot more on older players, hoping that the experience would help the team turn things around.
“But that comes at the expense of young players. That’s why the Shabalalas, the Mshinis, the Mashianes, struggle to get game time, it’s because of that.
“But it’s not a reflection of their ability, it’s just that the team is going through this patch.
“I think also the coach’s confidence…I say to myself if these boys were at Jomo Cosmos in 1992,1993,1994 and they started in 2022, right now they would have been big names and regular players.
“Because Jomo didn’t have this pressure with a lot of supporters screaming saying we want a trophy. And he will tell you that, ‘We lost but I’ve given these boys 90 minutes’.
“Once they have been given ten 90 minutes, you start to see different players emerge because experience counts a lot in football.
“So, he would take that risk because he didn’t have pressure. But coaches at Chiefs can’t do it.”
‘IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR ABILITY’
Eugene went on to commend the Chiefs’ former coach Arthur Zwane for having tried to give game time to the youngsters despite the pressure he endured.
He feels that Arthur wasn’t bad even though he lost some games due to inexperience in his team.
“Arthur tried because they are his boys, he raised them but it cost him his job. Even though as you know now, he was actually not doing too badly but because supporters wanted a cup,” he added.
“They hadn’t won a cup in a long time, and [supporters] were like, ‘Coach move we want another one’. Ntseki came in, it was worse and now Johnson, even more worse.
“So, I think supporters are learning that sometimes you mustn’t rush trophies. Some of them on social media are saying, ‘Arthur we didn’t give you a chance, you were actually not doing too bad’.
“His stats compared to what you’re seeing now are little bit better. So, it’s a matter of time and space, nothing to do with their ability.
“But also as I said it also depends on the coach’s confidence, Arthur was confident to play these boys even though he was losing some of the matches. But he would say that we lost but I’ve given an experience. He also comes from the Jomo Sono school of coaching.”
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