Pitso Misunderstood
In any sport, winning becomes everything on any given day. There are so many ways to win and some people are serial winners while others are just, well, introvert serial winners. Fact is, we all compete because we want to win, even against all odds, we still believe we can pull a rabbit out of the hat and do the impossible.
In the world of football, there are managers over the years who managed to win almost everything, who pursue this, they chase and chase season after season. The best of the current crop of great managers are led by Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, there are the likes of Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, Mauricio Pochettino, Unai Emery; and this is only in the English Premier League.
These managers ask for improvement, consistency and perfection from their players every day, from the training grounds to the field every weekend afternoon. They spend sleepless nights trying to figure out the opposition and trying to prepare their players for the next match. Word going around the football corridors is that Unai Emery, Arsenal manager, is a believer of handing out flash drives to his players and he also shares self-help books with them. These drives contain information about the next opponent; every player who is going to take part on the match is expected to know this information.
“I’m excited to welcome Pitso to Mamelodi Sundowns and am confident that he will contribute to the success and growth of the club. Pitso’s first major task is to ensure that we win games and finish in a respectable position in the premier League, taking into account the very high standards we set for ourselves.” Dec 2,2012 quoted statement from Patrice Motsepe
When he was appointed by Mamelodi Sundowns, Pitso Mosimane was making his return to club football since leaving Supersport United to join the national team as an assistant coach. When he took over, the team was on 14th position and he managed to take them up to 10th by the end of that season. In the six years he’s been there, he has won the Premier League 3 times, Nedbank Cup and Telkom KO, one CAF Champions League and CAF Super Cup.
Before the appointment of Pitso, Patrice Motsepe had struggled to find a coach good enough to take his Sundowns team to the next level. He had hired well-known coaches from around the world, those who have represented the biggest team in the world of football as players or coaches, but they all struggled. When a team has enough money to buy any player they want, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. Just like any other team in the world that has money to spend, Sundowns was expected to win everything.
Big teams in South Africa have always believed in bringing unknown European coaches and ignoring the talent that the country has, especially black coaches. Sundowns were also victim of this idea that was brought to the game by Kaizer Motaung, way back when he formed a team made up of Orlando Pirates rejects.
Since his appointment in 2012/13 season, Pitso Mosimane's team has never finished lower than 2nd. This is down to the drive and will to win mentality of the man. It used to be joke on the street that each week Pitso would compare himself to a big name coach or compare his team to a big team in Europe. People used to listen to his post-match interviews just so they'd call him a sour loser. But we always miss the idea of competition, it's not competing if after every bad play, you walk away satisfied that what mattered was you were there. Finding a winning edge is the reason why we get into it, we do our best and things happen in the game, and we feel unfairly treated, we will talk about it, because at the end we have gave it our best but a referee mistake or an intentional foul or anything that robs us of positive results, we make sure our story is heard, our dissatisfaction about how other use foul ways to stop us from reaching our goal.
Serial winners get into every season knowing it's going to be harder than the previous one, even if it ain’t broken, they fix it. When you're a champion, you have to understand it's not the end of it. It’s the beginning.
“After you’ve won something, you’re no longer 100 percent, but 90 percent. It’s like a bottle of carbonated water where the cap is removed for a short while. Afterwards there’s a little less gas inside.” Johan Cruyff
The 2015/16 season justified the greatness of the man. In a season that saw him bring CAF Champions trophy to Chloorkop, Pitso Mosimane was recognized as the number 10 best coach in the world. He was rated better than Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Leonardo Jardim.
It's easy to say that complacency is the enemy of progress but it is far harder to stop taking glory for granted, especially when you have long worked with a lineup that you trust. At this level, you have to be consumed by the desperate need to going back, season after season, winning again, season after season. Pitso has mastered this, even before he arrived at Sundowns.
At Supersport, Mosimane spend 6 years that included 2 trophies and 2 league runner-up medals. Not bad for a coach that can only work with a team that has the finances to buy any player in local football.
After the Supersport job, Pitso took the national team job, this happened sooner than it was supposed to. His last game for the national team was a 1-all draw to Ethiopia, the team showed so much progress but SAFA decided to sack him. His start was much promising, winning 4 of his first 6 games but progress in South Africa relies on never having obstacles along the way. The fact that he got fired when he did helped his progress, paved the way for this man to be where he is. He has changed the way we play football, he has been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to do his thing without being thrown under the bus, like Dan Malesela, who now manages a 2nd division team.
The Mamelodi Sundowns Pitso Mosimane recognizes that victory is only a victory and it lasts for a moment. And in that moment you have to plan your next step, you can never be complacent. Tactics, players, coaching staff must always be improved. Barcelona have been the best example of this, they have continued pursuing this feeling over and over, season after season, manager after manager. They have blended the old with the new, kept on finding success because that’s how big teams operate, that’s how good managers make their names, and this is exactly how Pitso Mosimane carries himself. He stands for constant evolution, and a genius will always be thought to be a madman.
By Fani Ntele @Faniwantele