Debut in the DStv Premiership dugout

The new DStv Premiership season gets under way on Friday with a full round of matches this weekend providing a competitive debut for a number of coaches at their new clubs.

SuperSport.com looks at who they are and what the expectations might be for them this season.

CHIPPA UNITED

Daine Klate

Klate has been handed bis first head coach role after impressing in the Chippa United DStv Diski Challenge side, and replaces Kurt Lentjies, who was somewhat surprisingly given the boot at the end of last season despite leading the side to safety from relegation.

Klate was a quality winger with a number of top clubs, including Orlando Pirates, but has been dealt a tough hand with no less than 18 new signings at Chippa amid a huge squad overhaul. It could take some time for them to gel.

The club will be hoping for a top eight place, but perhaps survival should be deemed a success too.

KAIZER CHIEFS

Arthur Zwane

Zwane was in charge on a temporary basis at the end of last season – his second such stint with assistant Dillon Sheppard.

But now he has been handed the reins permanently and backed with a three-year contract as the former winger looks to restore the glory days at Naturena after seven long years without a trophy.

He will feel he has done his apprenticeship having been assistant to a few coaches in the past and that he now deserves his shot at the top job.

As ever, the expectations at Chiefs will be to win trophies and they enter every competition with an eye on winning it. The league will be tough, but with three domestic knockout trophies on offer, at least one piece of silverware should be considered a must.

MARITZBURG UNITED

John Maduka

Maduka has made the unexpected switch from Royal AM to Maritzburg United following the axing of Ernst Middendorp with The Team of Choice.

Maduka excelled at Royal AM last season, leading the team to third place in the league and qualification for the CAF Confederation Cup, having had similar success at Bloemfontein Celtic before that.

He led Phunya Sele Sele to the finals of the Nedbank Cup and MTN8 in 2020, though both were lost.

The former Malawi international had been long-time team manager at Celtic and later co-coach with Lehlohonolo Seema, but in recent years has come into his own.

Maritzburg will hope to steer well clear of the relegation zone this season and instead push for a top eight place.

MARUMO GALLANTS

Romain Folz

Gallants have taken something of a risk by appointing 32-year-old Frenchman Romain Folz as their new coach for the coming season.

He has limited experience as a head coach and was last with Township Rollers in Botswana, so this will be a big step up in quality and expectations.

He must also contend with a CAF Confederation Cup campaign, a reward for Gallants’ runner-up place in the Nedbank Cup last season.

He has been brought in as a modern, fresh thinker who will take the squad forward with new ideas. Time will tell if he can handle the heat in Limpopo.

ORLANDO PIRATES

Jose Riveiro

The Spanish coach was a left-field pick for Orlando Pirates, but one of a number they have made in recent years with mixed success.

He comes having done well in Finland, but this will be a totally different experience with much greater expectations on his shoulders.

Pirates go into every game needing to win it, that is the level he has to operate now and coming from sedate Finland, he will have to get used to the vociferous Ghost and their demands if things start going south.

But like Folz, he has been signed as a coach with progressive ideas and someone who can bring a new outlook on things to the club.

He also faces a period of adaption and will no doubt learn many lessons about PSL in the opening few weeks.

RICHARDS BAY

Sifiso Dladla

Dladla is not new to the Richards Bay job having helped them to promotion last season, but this will be his first season coaching in the DStv Premiership.

He will have help in the form of technical director Vasili Manousakis, who worked with Benni McCarthy at Cape Town City and AmaZulu, and that at least means there is some topflight experience there.

The club have made a number of new signings but may lack a bit of DStv Premiership experience among their playing group too.

Often promoted teams live off the novelty and adrenalin of promotion for a few months before, like Sekhukhune United and Swallows FC before them, that fades in the second half of the campaign.

The only expectation here should be survival and to build from there.

ROYAL AM

Dan Malesela

Malesela looks to be the lead in the three-man co-coaching set-up and certainly has the most recent experience of the topflight among the trio.

He arrived having been surprisingly ditched by Marumo Gallants at the end of last season despite leading them comfortably to safety and the Nedbank Cup final.

The club claim this is because he does have the required qualifications to sit on the bench for them in CAF games, which could be why Royal AM have an extended coaching team too.

Khabo Zondo

Few saw this one coming as Zondo returns to DStv Premiership as a head coach for the first time since he led Bay United in 2009.

He had success with Lamontville Golden Arrows earlier in his career before an ill-fated move to Mamelodi Sundowns that was brief and painful.

He has also been involved with the junior and senior (as assistant coach) national teams and brings a wealth of experience, even if he has not been a head coach in the topflight for 13 years.

Abram Nteo

Nteo went to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 with the South African Under-23 team and is perhaps best known as a Bloemfontein Celtic player.

He was later an assistant coach at that club and should be considered the junior of the coaching trio at Royal AM this season.

SEKHUKHUNE UNITED

Kaitano Tembo

Tembo has joined Sekhukhune after leaving SuperSport United towards the end of last season and has had a massive overhaul of the squad with basically a new team at the club.

He was with Matsatsantsa for more than two decades as a player and coach, and enjoyed some success in recent years as he took them to the MTN8 title in 2019.

But as the club sold their best players, he could not find the winning formula and left in April after almost four years as the head coach.

The expectation now at Sekhukhune will be to push for a top eight place but with such a large number of new players, they could take some time to bed in.

SUPERSPORT UNITED

Gavin Hunt

Hunt returns for a second spell with Matsatsantsa having won the league three times in a row with the club between 2008 and 2010.

He needs to get his career back on track after disappointing spells at Kaizer Chiefs and Chippa United, though in both of those instances there was lots going on behind the scenes that worked against him.

He certainly is a coach with knowledge and know-how and should be energised for the challenge of taking SuperSport back to a position of fighting for trophies again.

He will have to rely quite a bit on their young academy players, but top eight will be a minimum expectation, though he will surely be thinking of a trophy and maybe a shot at the CAF qualification places.