McCarthy turned down AmaZulu return

by Staff Reporter

Thursday Dec 05, 2024. 13:00

Benni McCarthy has revealed that he rejected the chance to return to AmaZulu in October before they settled on Arthur Zwane and Vusumuzi Vilakazi.

The Bafana Bafana legend guided Usuthu to their best-ever finish of second place in the Betway Premiership (2020-21) during his 15-month tenure and competed in the CAF Champions League the following season.

However, McCarthy parted ways with the KZN outfit in March 2022 after failing to qualify for the quarter-finals and struggling in the league due the players suffering from fatigue.

The former Manchester United coach claims that the club’s president, Sandile Zungu, had unreasonable expectations for his second campaign at the helm given the lack of investment in the squad.

Pablo Franco had been sacked on September 30 after losing his opening three matches of the season and Zungu reached out to McCarthy in a bid to bring him back to Durban.

“The president [Zungu] sent me a message and I spoke to him about the possibility of returning [to the club] but I have moved on and my time at AmaZulu was perfect,” the 47-year-old said.

“I loved and enjoyed working with the president and the rest of the guys because they made me feel like I was the head coach. There was no interference, I had full control of the team and I could play the system I wanted to.

“I had an open dialogue and if I needed something, I expressed my desire to the president and if it was within his reach he gave it to me. It was the perfect relationship between the president and a coach, which is how it is supposed to be.

“I was able to do what I did with AmaZulu, but where there is success comes problems. Now the president wanted to compete for the title, but you can’t compete for the title if you don’t want to invest.

“You want a Ferrari but you give me a Fiat Uno or Corsa engine and expect me to compete. [Mamelodi] Sundowns people come with Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and I must put a Corsa engine in a Ferrari to compete with them.

“It doesn’t work like that – give me a weapon to fight with. The problem was when the club didn’t want to spend by bringing in the players we needed because we were playing in the CAF Champions League and you must go with the same team.

“Those players were exhausted. We reached a limit with that team and we needed fresh blood – and when that wasn’t coming in, you are going to have setbacks. You are going to have a difficult time to do it for the second time around and that’s where problems came.”