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Former Bafana Bafana winger and serial title winner Daine Klate has criticised club owners who romanticise football but lack the blueprint for sustained success.
Now a coach, the 41-year-old says he has witnessed first-hand how mid-table Betway Premiership sides struggle to emulate their more established rivals, largely because they fail to build long-term, winning structures.
Klate, who had stints at Chippa United, Durban City and La Masia, believes too many club owners are obsessed with quick fixes.
"You hit the nail on the head. The mid-table teams and teams always fighting relegation, there is a lack of understanding how success works in football I actually – unfortunately or fortunately – know how it works. I know how I won 16 titles and cup finals, and I know what is needed and what kind of mentality is required from leadership because I've experienced it," said Klate
"Now when you come into an environment and you see the way things are done here is actually not how success works, that's the difference. But are they willing to learn about it? Take Jose Ferreira for example – It's no fluke that he won league titles at Sundowns, SuperSport [United] and [Bidvest] Wits. Similarly with what I have done, I went from SuperSport to Pirates because I understand how success works.
"Yes, I could not do it on my own, but everybody else is on the same page. We together in this as one collective working towards one common goal. We knew that if we win the league title, the lady in finance, the kit manager, the lady that makes tea – everybody played their role and responsibility, and nobody has worked againt anyone."
The former Orlando Pirates player stopped short of saying there was widespread backstabbing behind the scenes that was stalling progress at these clubs.
"There have been people who had beef with each other at certain clubs, but when it came to work and ethics they put it aside and everything goes. But there are probably people in the game at the moment that shouldn't be in the game, who don't understand how the game works but think they do – and that's probably the downfall of most of these teams, because of the clubs I have been to I have seen it in the corridors. The corridor talk is probably one of the worst things you can discover.
"I learned, I absorbed things, I read people, and I am very observant wherever I go and whatever I go into. When I look back at my tenure wherever I was, when it came to football training and football-specific things I loved it. It's the behind-the-scenes issues, you get called into meetings that's not in relation to what we trying to achieve with youngsters."
Klate said he has struggled with having input at the clubs where he’s worked so far as a development coach.
At Durban City, Klate was recruited by Gavin Hunt but revealed the synergy between the senior team and the DStv Diski Challenge side was restricted.
"We were seperated. There was a moment where we were told that Gavin [Hunt] has no input in the diski team, and I thought to myself: if the head coach of the first team doesn't have input, how are we going to promote players here?. That's not how things are going to work. But be that as it may, all the flak came to me – I had to absorb everyhing that was happening. The more I tried to build the team, the more I felt there was a lack of trust and belief, not only in me but in Gavin Hunt as well."
