By TERRY MADYAUTA KAITANO Tembo’s future at South African top-flight league outfit Supersport has come under scrutiny, with the club reported to have opened negotiations with Bafana Bafana legend Benni McCarthy ahead of next season.
Supersport have been a pale shadow of themselves in the current DStv Premiership campaign as they are occupying eighth position with eight wins out of 23 matches.
The ambitious club seems to have been struggling under the guidance of the former Warriors defender, who had to rebuild the team after the senior players left en masse.
South Africa’s FarPost recently revealed SuperSport’s search for a new coach.
“FarPost has it on good authority that SuperSport United are in talks with Benni McCarthy, who recently parted ways with AmaZulu. McCarthy could be joining Matsatsantsa ahead of next season,” it reported.
At this point, it is unclear what that would mean for Tembo, who has spent over a decade in the club’s structures after hanging his boots, first as assistant coach before being elevated to be head coach when Gavin Hunt left.
On Saturday, Matsatsantsa lost 3-2 to Golden Arrows, a defeat that saw them dropping from seventh to eighth position on the league table.
Meanwhile, McCarthy’s representative Rob Moore told Soccer Laduma that he was taking a brief sabbatical from coaching to be with his family.
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“His time at AmaZulu was incredibly successful. He took the club to heights that they have never been in history. The club was written about and he ended up being the PSL Coach of the Year, and ended up being offered the Bafana Bafana job,” Moore told Soccer Laduma.
“Benni will see what happens. He will take some time off and spend with his family. He has been away for the last 16 months, so he will go home and spend some time with them.”
Moore did not rule out a possible move to Supersport, but said McCarthy would look forward to a club that has enough resources to push his ambitions.
“He will evaluate what comes next. If he is going to return to South Africa to manage, it must be the club that has the resources that can match his ambitions, otherwise there’s no point in coming back,” he said.
“He did it with Cape Town City, he took the club to a fifth place finish, two cup finals and won one. He took AmaZulu from relegation to all the things that they’ve achieved.
“So all those things, he has done, he has proven himself. Now, what’s next for him is a big club, with resources that will say, ‘Benni, we want you for three years or so’, that wants to build, otherwise he will look abroad and that’s where he is at and we will just see what the future holds in the coming months.”
Follow Terry on Twitter @madyautatpm
