MHLONGO GIVES PIRATES ULTIMATUM

MBABANE – Moneni Pirates must act swiftly if they want to keep caretaker coach Bongani Mhlongo.

As the word ‘caretaker’ suggests, Mhlongo took over as a temporary coach for the ‘Buccaneers of Moneni’ after head coach Gcina ‘Magiyane’ Dlamini was appointed by the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) as the national team’s assistant coach.

‘Magiyane’ was elevated from his part-time juniors Under-17s national team squad coach position to assist former Young Buffaloes’ Dominic Kunene, who was appointed the senior national team head coach.
The Times Sports Desk has established that Mhlongo is now not very pleased with staying with the hub giants as his future is uncertain.

replacing

A number of coaches had been linked with replacing the departed Dlamini for the hot seat of the head coach, but reports suggest that Mhlongo will be pleased to be given the job on a full-time basis.

Sources within the ‘Sea Robbers’ camp have reliably confided in this publication that Mhlongo had met management and made his feelings known.
After the departure of Dlamini, Mhlongo informed management that it was also time for him to part ways with the team as he was assistant to the former and the incoming coach would have to choose his technical bench as per the normal procedure. However, Pirates management pleaded with him to stay to continue with their (Magiyane and Mhlongo) philosophy.

However, sources claim Mhlongo wanted the issue of his appointment sorted out soon otherwise he would be leaving.
“The team management had to finalise this issue last week Wednesday but will meet this week to have it finalised, most likely this evening (yesterday) as the Management Committee (MC) and patrons usually meet on Mondays,” confided a source.

Among other issues, it was established that Mhlongo found the working environment not conducive as there are vacant technical team positions still not filled by management and Mhlongo wants that sorted if appointed as the head coach.

administrative

Mhlongo was drawn for comment on the matter and neither denied nor confirmed the news but said it was an issue handled at administrative level and therefore, referred questions to management.
Pirates’ General Manager Mlungisi Simelane was also drawn for comment and confirmed that they were to meet last night to finalise the issue of the team coach.

“Later today (yesterday) we are meeting to finalise the issue of the team coach. We will decide whether we engage the caretaker coach for a full-time take over or we explore other options,” said Simelane.
He said this was what he was aware of and the other issues risen in this matter he said he would not be entertaining as he knew nothing about them.

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