Orlando Pirates' players lack the leadership, character and spirit that characterised the Soweto giant's squads that lifted the Confederation of African Football's Champions League in 1995 and a successive domestic treble between 2010 and 2012.
That's one of the main barriers preventing Pirates from breaking a six-year trophy barren spell, says former Bucs skipper John Moeti, who was in the historic team that beat Ivory Coast's Asec Mimosas to lift Africa's premier interclub crown in Abidjan 25 years ago.
Continental glory
Jerry Sikhosana scored the solitary strike for Pirates after a 2-2 first-leg draw in Johannesburg to give SA football its first continental glory after readmission in 1990.
That Bucs team had Edward Motale, Brendon Silent, Mark Fish, Bernard Lushozi, Gavin Lane, Marks Maponyane, Ernest Makhanya and William Okpara among the legends that Moeti says were all capable of leading the team at any given time.
Moeti insists there's no question about current captain Happy Jele's leadership acumen.
But not having strong characters supporting Jele has, he argues, hampered the team's trophy-winning ability since the Nedbank Cup success in 2014.
"The manner in which they've succumbed to defeats when they were supposed to win, that character, that winning spirit or mentality, has been lacking," said Moeti of the current crop that bowed out of the Absa Premiership race after a 1-0 defeat to arch-rivals and log leaders Kaizer Chiefs last week - a third loss in all competitions against Amakhosi this season.
"But you can see that these players are trying," said Moeti, "they're really trying to win something.
"But when the chips are down I think that's where now you can tell where the character level is."
Moeti also laments the decision taken by Pirates boss Irvin Khoza at the end of the 2010-11 campaign not to renew the contract of Dutch coach Ruud Krol after he had won a treble.
Pirates did win another treble immediately after Krol's departure, but Moeti says Bucs never looked the same after the former Dutch international left in June 2011.
"I think the downward slide in terms of winning cups started after Krol left," said the former Bafana Bafana midfielder.
"I must tell you that I envied that team because it played with the heart and even when they were losing they never gave up. It was not only playing good football but there was that will to win.
Morale went down
"They would push right to the final whistle and that's what I admired. Krol was leading that team as a coach and when he left I think the morale went down a little from the player's side."
Krol's team was built over three years and had big names including Oupa Manyisa, Andile Jali, Lucky Lekgwathi, Isaac Chansa, Benson Mhlongo, Daine Klate and Katlego Mashego, among others.
It went on to win the MTN8 and the Telkom Knockout with Brazilian coach Cesar Leal before finishing the 2011-12 season with a league triumph under Bucs' perennial caretaker coach Augusto Palacious.
Despite all the disappointments of the past six years - in which Bucs have finished twice as runners-up to Mamelodi Sundowns in the league and lost in the finals of the Telkom Knockout in 2018 and Nedbank Cup in 2016 and 2017 - Khoza believes the future is bright because of the foundation in technical structures they've put in place.
"I'm not the only one who should be worried about not winning the trophies," Khoza told the Sunday Times this week.
"That's a responsibility of everyone associated with the club. But the whole thing shows we have a league in which one can't predict who's going to win what. It's a very competitive environment and we should take that into cognisance when talking about Pirates."
Happy days
Under the German coach Josef Zinnbauer, the 10th Bucs mentor since Krol left in 2011, the happy days seemed to be coming back at Pirates until Bidvest Wits kicked them out of the Nedbank Cup before Chiefs dealt the final blow to their title ambitions.
Pirates had won six league matches in a row ahead of the Soweto derby and could still be dreaming of upsetting the applecart in the league race had they not blown their chances last week.
While some may thank assistant coach Fadlu Davids for helping Zinnbauer settle quicker in his first stint in African football, Khoza cautions against rushing to heap praise on individuals.
"We had the same problem when Rulani (Mokwena) was assistant (to Milutin Sredojevic).
"At Pirates we have a structure and all these coaches, including Davids and Zinnbauer, came when the structure was already there."
Going forward, Moeti still points to the issue of leadership on the field of play and feels Pirates can do with a signing of Thulani Hlatshwayo, the strong Bafana Bafana and Wits central defender and captain.
"I don't see anybody around Jele, someone who can help him, take his arm and say 'let's go forward'. There's that kind of leadership vacuum and I strongly believe someone like Hlatshwayo can help Pirates."
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