It’s surely only a matter of time before Fadlu Davids takes sole charge of a PSL team once again, writes Mogamad Allie.
He was only 36 when, as caretaker coach, he steadied a listing ship and guided Maritzburg United to their second top-eight finish at the end of the 2016-17 season. The following season Davids, who was duly given the job permanently, guided the Team of Choice to the lofty heights of an unprecedented fourth place in the Premiership.
Just as his stock was rising, though, the 2018-19 season turned out to be a major disappointment. Maritzburg, who lost key players like Bevan Fransman, Lebohang Maboe, Mpho Matsi and Judas Moseamedi, could secure only one win in their first 15 games, forcing the club to show their former captain the door just before Christmas in 2018.
Such is the respect for the tremendous job he did at Maritzburg, a club with limited resources, that Orlando Pirates soon came calling and within a few weeks he was appointed as assistant to Milutin Sredojevic. Now into his third full season with Buccaneers, having also worked with Josef Zinnbauer, who quit dramatically just one game into the start of last season, Davids was entrusted with the coaching duties alongside Mandla Ncikazi.
The duo led Pirates to a reasonable third-place finish to secure a spot in this season’s Caf Confederation Cup where they’ve given themselves every chance of progressing from the group stages to the quarter-finals. While winning a continental title would be a boost to a club that’s won only the 2020 MTN8 in the past decade, it’s the league title that Pirates are after.
With Mamelodi Sundowns having opened up a massive 18-point lead over the Buccaneers two-thirds of the way into the season, their best hope would be a runner’s-up spot that would secure qualification for next season’s Champions League. Bolstered by the return of key players from injury, the Pirates are looking much stronger than in the first half of the season when the lack of a cutting edge in front of goal cost them vital points.
A former striker, who had a stint with Bulgarian side Chernomorets Burgas, two spells with Platinum Stars and a five-year stay with Maritzburg before injury forced a premature end to his playing days in January 2012, a career in coaching was always on his agenda for the Cape Town-born Davids.
‘Ernst Middendorp, who was coach of Maritzburg at the time, always encouraged me. He knew I was interested in coaching and told me at the time when I was battling with injuries, “let’s not think about the next two to three years of playing but let’s think about the next 20-30 years of coaching”,’ Davids told Orlando Pirates TV.
He duly acquired a UEFA B-level coaching badge in June 2015. As someone who has been coaching for nearly a decade, Davids is a highly rated technician. For him, the emphasis should be on improving the players. ‘It’s about making them realise their potential. Sometimes a player limits himself in terms of what he can achieve.
‘I like to analyse the player to see where he can improve, how he can do so and then squeeze the last bit of potential out of him so he can fulfil his dreams. If you focus on the individual player and then the team you get the best out of the player and ultimately you get the best out of the team. The Pirates squad we have is a very good one but the most promising thing is the potential – we haven’t come close to reaching our potential.’