Brandon Truter says he understands how player power affected Benni McCarthy’s tenure at AmaZulu and there are some players he’ll never want to work with again after his stint at the club.
Truter was sacked by AmaZulu earlier this season and replaced with Romain Folz, he’s since bounced back at Sekhukhune United where he’s won four games, drawn one and suffered his first defeat last weekend to Mamelodi Sundowns.
Babina Noko moved from 15th to sixth place in the period since he’s succeded Kaitano Tembo and while he’s earned praise, he was often criticised during his time at Usuthu and Swallows and labelled as a draw specialist.
He admits his surprise move to AmaZulu, replacing Bafana Bafana legend Benni McCarthy wasn’t easy – as he stated he entered a dressing room where some senior players were hostile when not afforded regular game time.
“Replacing a personality and character like that, it’s always going to be difficult as a coach but it boils down to the players, how receptive, how open they are when you arrive.” Truter told iDiski Times.
“Are they coachable? But in my view, before Benni left AmaZulu, he also experienced difficulties with the players. From the outside, I picked it up from what he was saying in his interviews.
“But that was from the outside. When I went in there, it was a good opening eight games, I think seven unbeaten, six wins, one draw and a loss, so it was good. But the same Benni, he took over, 12 games unbeaten and he came second in the league.
“But then the second season, he experienced what I experienced. I understand what happened now – all I can say is that there’s players at AmaZulu I won’t work with ever again.
“I will try and stay clear of them – the player power, the dressing room that people hint about at AmaZulu, it’s not always a good environment for coaching, it’s not always nice.”
When asked what was his description of ‘player-power’ when it came to the KZN-based outfit he acknowledged that man-managing the situations got the better of him and at some point broke him down where his desire for coaching deteriorated.
“When players have a direct line to the Chairman, to complain when they are not playing. To talk about tactics, to really suck you down when you have a tactical plan for the next game and players want to buy into it but they want to do their own thing,” Truter explained.
“So that’s how they have control there, players can make or break you in South Africa. If you don’t have a good relationship with them, they will throw you under the bus and that’s the reality of our football at the moment.
“It’s sometimes not about managing big players, or egos. As coaches, we have 30-odd personalities that you have to man-manage, and you can’t always please everyone, you have to adapt to each individual.
“Players sulking, bringing problems to training, and having on and off-the-field problems you need to manage as well. The owners, supporters, and the media you face too – you take all this in and have to man-manage it.
“You take it home with you and that can make your family life suffer. And then you need to make a call, do you continue eating crap and taking nonsense, or say enough is enough.
“That’s why I gave all the respect to the players at Sekhukhune, it’s a wonderful bunch at the moment. The boys looked so focused, learning more about my tactical plans, open to growth – they also share input and ideas which makes for a healthy team environment.”
