The business of soccer, like life in general, is dynamic with continuous improvement required to face new challenges. Mamelodi Sundowns FC will have to embark on a brand new project if they are to get a satisfactory return on investment on Patrice Motsepe’s very substantial investment. It would be reasonable to say that a club which operates on the sort of budget they do cannot struggle to finish in the top eight.

Something is wrong with their business model for sure as this affects their sporting project. The football is the core activity of a soccer club and there will definitely be change at Sundowns since they parted ways with Henri Michel during the season and appointed ted Dumitru on a caretaker bases. We await the changes at this ambitious club with eager anticipation.

The country’s biggest soccer brand, Kaizer Chiefs is also embarking on a new project having parted company with their Head Coach, Muhsin Ertugral. It was interesting to note the Chairman of Kaizer Chiefs, Kaizer Motaung’s comment regarding this issue when asked if he would consider a local appointee.

His response was that there are only two local coaches with the necessary skills to handle either the Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates job and both are unavailable therefore his club had no choice but to look overseas. I reserve my comment on this one for another separate discussion.

It has been reported that Muhsin Ertugral will be replacing Craig Rosslee as coach of Ajax Cape Town. Muhsin has already had a stint there so I wonder if he will do things any better than before but at least the club knows what they are getting. Amazulu FC made a very intriguing move I think when they moved Clive Barker to the position of Technical Director and replaced him with his protégé Neil Tovey as Head Coach.

Tovey had previously been assistant to Barker, perhaps Tovey will offer a younger and therefore fresh angle to the job. I think of most interest is whether Jomo Sono persists with his business model and his club continues to yo-yo between the two top divisions or whether he finally realizes that he needs a new and better model. I’ll end with news that could potentially result in bad news which I picked up from the PSL Extra Time programme on DSTV Supersport.

The news is that Christian Vieri the now faded former Italian soccer star may try his luck at Moroka Swallows. If it is true this will be very bad business since there is no football left in his legs having failed to resurrect has career at countless Italian clubs and there were even rumours of him considering the chaotic but very skillful Brazilian League.

He even considered new careers as a TV reality star before giving football another unsuccessful try. For Swallows sake I hope this news was just a rumour.

About the author

Lennox Nhando wrote 61 articles on this blog.

• Blog