Chippa United’s sacking of Vusumuzi Vilakazi last week and a debut for Nkosohlanga Dikeni as their new coach last weekend means the Eastern Cape club have used six coaches this season.
It equals the record for the most coaches used in a single season that was first set by Manning Rangers in the 2000-01 campaign and since equalled since by the likes of Zulu Royals, Santos, Black Leopards, Marumo Gallants and trigger-happy Chippa three times.
Dikeni’s debut as coach in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with TS Galaxy sees him follows in the footsteps this campaign of Sinethemba Badela, Musa Nyatama, Morgan Mamilla, Luc Eymael and Vilakazi.
Manning Rangers were the first Premier Soccer League champions in 1998 but three years later only survived relegation by goal difference after a tumultuous campaign in which Ted Dumitru, Alan Chetty, Mervyn Hauptfleisch, Dougie Sheppard, Zoran Pesic and Shepherd Murape were all employed as coaches.
In the 2003-4 season, when Zulu Royals finished bottom of the standings, they had as coach Joseph Mukeba, Zipho Dlangalala, Gavin Lane, Walter Rautmann, Clive Barker and Jacob Sakala
The following campaign season, both Manning Rangers and Santos had six coaches, some overlapping. Rangers, who were relegated, started with Bruce Grobbelaar, then had Alan Chetty, Ian Palmer, Clive Barker, Simon Ngomane and Ephraim Mashaba
Santos, who ended the season in 12th place, used Boebie Solomons, David Notoane, Roald Poulsen, Notoane again, Mark Byrne and finally Clive Barker.
Black Leopards had six coaches in the Covid-affected 2019-20 season when they finished second from bottom but survived in the post-season promotion-relegation playoffs. The coaches were Lionel Soccoia, Morgan Shivambu, Eymael, Cavin Johnson, Alan Clark and the duo of Mongezi Bobe and Shivambu.
The mind-spinning turn over coaches at Chippa is nothing new with chairman Siviwe Mpengesi earning a reputation for being hard to please.
In their first season in the top flight in the 2012-13 campaign, when they were relegated, Mpengesi appointed six coaches – Manqoba Mngqithi, Julius Dube, Roger Sikhakhane, Farouk Abrahams, Wilfred Mugeyi and Mark Harrison
In the 2022-23 season Chippa had six different appointments in a single campaign again – Daine Klate, Siyabulela Gwambi, Mammila, Kurt Lentjies, Gwambi again and finally Lehlohonolo Seema.
There were also six different appointments in the 2020-21 season with Seema appointed twice.
Last season there were six different coaching stints at Marumo Gallants, although the club did some recycling.
Dylan Kerr left before the season kicked off, followed by Dan Malesela in charge for the first 12 games of the season. When he was removed, Sundra Govender and Duncan Lechesa acted as caretaker before Malesela came back after being sidelined for a second spell that lasted eight games. After his second firing, Govender and Lechesa were caretakers again before Abdeslam Ouaddou took over and completed the season.