The veteran manager said Amakhosi never wanted to settle for less than the league title this season even after their below-par performances last term
Kaizer Chiefs head coach Ernst Middendorp revealed how funny he finds it that other coaches and clubs keep saying they don’t want to win the PSL title.
The 61-year-old mentor reflected on how people thought he was crazy when he made it clear at the start of the campaign that Amakhosi would challenge for league honours.
Middendorp claims other coaches also felt sorry for him, especially after finishing ninth on the log last season, adding that he decided to do things differently to achieve different results.
“I was always smiling on the fact that the other teams said that they don’t want the championship – [saying] they want this and that,” Middendorp told reporters.
“No, we had a clear mandate from the beginning, in early August last year. I know there were [fake] smiles all over, ‘what’s this crazy man doing, how can they want to win the league?’
“Even other coaches were looking at me, saying ‘how can a club pressurise the team in such a way?’
“I said let’s start by doing stuff differently and when you do that, you’ll have different results.”
The German mentor admitted it is up to his team to seal the deal and lift the trophy at the end of the season after being in control for the past seven months.
“We have our fate in our hands. In fact, we had it for the last seven months,” he continued.
“Our target has been the league, and the other one [individual awards] is okay but it doesn’t bring you anything. So, let’s prepare for the next game against AmaZulu here at FNB [Stadium],”
Middendorp believes the most important thing in the remaining nine league matches is to do well against teams that aren’t challenging for the league title.
“I believe that it’s important how you handle the matches against the so-called teams that are not in the chasing pack for the league title,” he concluded.
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