An open letter to Naturena
To Whom it may concern,
I have been a fanatic of the mighty Amakhosi since 1989 when I was old enough to understand what a really good team was. That, paired with the fact, my father and brother both supported the black and gold made me swear my lifelong allegiance to the glamour boys from Phefeni. This was not a decision I took lightly. Like every sports fanatic supporting a team is a matter close to the heart. Dare I say it, it’s a matter akin to choosing a life partner.
For the longest time, supporting Kaizer Chiefs was an absolute pleasure. We had a litany of talented players, and almost always had a progressive coach able to balance the pressure of winning and entertaining the fans. Cup success was always-and I suppose-is still always guaranteed. I had no qualms telling all and sundry that my team was superior to whatever “little team” they supported. I was filled with an enormous sense of pride whenever the gold and black clad boys ran onto the pitch! The players to, always seemed to exude pride and confidence as a result of wearing the glamour boys jersey. Similarly it was always easy to see which players found the jersey too heavy.
As a relatively young man, I was never privileged enough to see Nelson “teenage” Dlaldla, nor Patrick “ace” Ntsoloelongoe or Zacharia “computer” Lamola. However, I was lucky enough to support a team containing Doctor “16V” Khumalo, Donald “ace” Khuse, Fani Madida, Shane McGregor, Neil Tovey and Lucas “rhoo” Radebe to name but a few. These were superstars in mine and millions of other eyes, who walked on water. It was in essence an all-star team. A status truly befitting a great team like Kaizer Chiefs. I hardly ever missed Chiefs game on the weekend. This often meant leaving birthday party’s early, but it was always well worth it. The 1992 season when that all-star team fulfilled its promise and won the league was a marker for what I truly believed would be the beginning of the happiest of times.
However, that victory seemed to be the end of the really good times. Suddenly the Amakhosi faithful were having to deal with one or two cup successes a season, while the league constantly eluded us. Enter Ted Dumitru, an old Kaizer Chiefs war horse. He took charge of an Amakhosi team once again brimming with talent. The good times were back again. John “shoes” Mosheou was undergoing some sort of Indian summer in what we assumed was the twilight of his career. Tinashe Nengomasha was running the midfield like clockwork and our defence was water tight. We won back to back titles under Ted, and my smile was broad. All the time!
Since then, we have not seen the league. If we’re completely honest we’ve not really come close either. Then the unthinkable happened. The worst thing that could possibly happen, happened. Pirates, the lifelong sworn enemy virtually did a clean sweep, and they threw it in our faces. They laughed at us. Worse yet, the pitied us.
You know all of this though.
Last weekend, Kaizer Chiefs was comprehensively outplayed by the old enemy in the MTN 8 cup. Some say it was the third time they beat us this season, but I personally don’t count the pre season friendlies. What I found worrisome though, was the manner in which our team seemed to lack creativity, or inspiration. For large parts of Saturday night’s game, it seemed the once mighty Amakhosi were shell shocked. For it me it seemed we were just waiting for the seas robbers to score. In reply to this, I said some harsh things about our coach on my social networking platforms-and really meant them. But worse was still to come. After a lacklustre, uninspiring performance by a team that is literally the team of millions, our coach flippantly, almost nonchanantly exclaimed “the show must go on”. Huh?! I’m sorry, that it is not at all acceptable. I know, that there are other fixtures coming up, not least another derby with the old enemy next Saturday. But the show didn’t need to go on quite so abruptly. If I’d heard “we had a really bad game today, the players know it we know it and we’re gutted” or even “bad performances are sometimes character building and we’ll bounce back from this” I would have been satisfied. Nope, what we got was the show must go on.
This leads me to my point. Finally. I feel, and have felt for a little while that my support of Kaizer Chiefs is being taken for granted. Yes the slogan is Khosi4Life, and I realise that doesn’t just mean during the good times. I am aware that there will be bad times. But for goodness sake, show me some light at the end of the tunnel! Keep me inspired by getting really top notch signings in the off season. Keep me interested by consistently playing a really good fluid type of football. Keep me wanting more by burying teams under an avalanche of goals. I don’t get that though. Instead I get off season signings I’ve never heard of. I get dull lacklustre football, with the occasional amazing performance. I get “the show must go on”. Well guess what, it doesn’t have to. My heart may want Khosi4Life but my head is telling me, it’s time to wise up. Time to give the local league a break. Thing is I can’t support another team. However, I can choose to just focus on my Man United who offer me all those thing I spoke about!
So leKhosi until such time as you deem it fit to offer those non negotiable I spoke of. Consider my support for you suspended.
Yours Sincerley,
Had enough heartache
Ps. I will watch this weekend’s derby game but with no emotion whatsoever!
