Bidvest Wits have been touted as dark horses for the Premier Soccer League (PSL) title challenge. But being called a dark horse in this age of power cuts is a curse.
Their chances of contending for their second championship have been hit by cimi-cimi, commonly known as load-shedding.
A fuming Gavin Hunt emitted fire and brimstone in the direction of Sifiso Hlanti after Wits lost to SuperSport United at the Mbombela Stadium last weekend.
The defeat left Wits in a heavily uncomfortable predicament with regard to their fading championship aspirations.
Singling out one player as the reason for Wits imploding is a cheap shot on the part of Hunt.
Sure, no coach worth his salt takes the sour taste of defeat sweetly.
It would not be stretching it to state that old Gav looked like someone who had guzzled a whole gallon of gavini (a home-made brew) before burping his outburst.
For a moment, he even appeared as though his lift didn’t go all the way upstairs.
Dejan Lovren had a shocker of a game when Watford waltzed past Liverpool last Saturday, as did many of his colleagues on the night.
You didn’t hear his manager, Jurgen Klopp, throw the Croatian under the bus for being skinned alive.
Loris Karius made mistakes that cost the Reds the 2018 Uefa Champions League title when his juvenile errors handed Real Madrid a third European title on the trot.
The supporters skinned Karius alive for his butterfingers, but there was not a word of public condemnation from his manager.
If he has been so rubbish, whose fault is it that the same player keeps getting selected?
Another example Hunt can look at is that of Gabadinho Mhango. The Orlando Pirates striker has been a man in an impish mood this season, tearing the net with regular impunity as he chases the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot.
But the Malawian came a cropper in the Soweto derby last week, squandering two glorious chances to score and take his goal tally to 16. Had Pirates beaten Chiefs, they would have come within touching distance of their log-leading rivals, just three points behind. He wasted those chances and his coach Josef Zinnbauer was so miffed by the loss he used a swear word in the post-match press conference.
Zinnbauer didn’t direct his colourful sailor language at Mhango nor lay the blame of defeat squarely at the door of the striker.
If he has been so rubbish for the whole season as his coach castigated him on national television, whose fault is it that the same player keeps getting selected?
Surely Hlanti doesn’t draft himself into the starting lineup. So why does he continuously and consistently get chosen?
While he scolded Hlanti on national television, Hunt succeeded in casting him as some enemy from within deployed by some shady secret society hellbent on destroying the Students.
Hunt’s frustration stems from the fact that Wits have been a fountain of inconsistency.
They are giving climate change a run for the constant unpredictable change in weather patterns.
That cannot be the fault of one player. Especially if Hunt can persuade himself to see the simple point that there is no I in the word team.
Teams win together and lose together.
Hunt must embrace the fact that if Wits were an economy, they would be in recession right now.
They have tanked badly into turbulence during the course of the campaign. And it is Hunt, not Hlanti, who is the captain of that plane. It is Hunt who must take the plane out of the violent movement. He is the boss. He calls the shots. The one he directed at Hlanti was a cheap, cimi-cimi one.
Twitter: @bbkunplugged99
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