2-3 years before we challenge for the title – SuperSport coach

Kaitano Tembo, head coach of Supersport United

Wednesday Jul 15, 2020. 12:00

SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo says he will need another two to three years to turn his team into title challengers.

The Zimbabwean has been in charge of Matsatsantsa since March 2018 (having initially taken over on a caretaker basis) and is looking to take the club back to their halcyon days of 2008 to 2010 when they won three successive Premier Soccer League (PSL) titles.

“I always look back to where I started as the interim coach. I think when I took over, the team was in 14th, two points above relegation, and with only about seven games to go – and we finished seventh,” Tembo told Far Post.

“And the following season, when I was appointed full-time, we lost in the MTN8 final on penalties to Cape Town City and finished sixth in the league.

“And this is my second season, where we also got into the MTN8 final, and we won it [against Highlands Park], and we’re currently third in the league.”

Tembo has become part of the furniture at SuperSport, serving the club since 1999 as a player, academy coach, assistant coach and now as first-team boss.

He continued, “So when I look back I see progress. And if you look at the team which I took over, to the team I have now, there’s a huge difference.

“A lot of players have left and we’ve brought in a lot of young players. For me, that’s what I look at if I want to judge myself.

“This season, I want to try and finish higher than we did last season. The team that got to the Confederation Cup final [in 2017, when Tembo served as assistant to Eric Tinkler] was very experienced, and most of those players are no longer with us.

“We are in a rebuilding phase, and it’s also made worse by the pandemic, and there are no budgets. So how I look at it is to bring in young players.

“This team can still improve and in the next two or three years, we should be fighting for the league. So we’re cutting the budget, and at the same time staying competitive.

“I can see that in the next two, three seasons, we will be able to challenge.”