New Wydad Athletic Club head coach Rulani Mokwena has insisted he’s not worried about the short lifespan of coaches in Morocco and North Africa can have, and admitted getting sacked is part of his job.
Mokwena, 37, joined Wydad just days after he parted ways with Mamelodi Sundowns, despite winning the DStv (now Betway) Premiership title and the African Football League last season.
However, Mokwena has opened a new chapter in his coaching career and is attempting to awaken the sleeping giant of Wydad, who finished in fifth place in the Botola Pro last season and failed to qualify for the CAF Champions League.
With Wydad having gone through 15 coaches over the last four years, and three coaching changes last season, Mokwena has joined a club where coaches traditionally don’t get a lot of time, but he insisted that he is not afraid of getting sacked, as it even happens to the best in the game.
“No, it comes with the territory, thanks Lethabo. It comes with the territory,” he said during a recent interview with the South African Football Journalists Association when asked by iDiski Times about the impatience of the club’s leadership.
“There is a passage [in Guardiola’s book] where Pep went through a very difficult period at Man City. And the author of the book actually says he’s never seen Pep Guardiola like this. When he got knocked out of the Champions League by Barca with Luis Enrique he was struggling with results at Manchester City, and he thought he was going to lose his job. He was extremely stressed about the situation.
“And I mean, if coaches like Pep Guardiola are not immune to the impatience and to the sack, I mean, who am I? You know, Jose Mourinho has been sacked. A coach like Jurgen Klopp has been sacked.
“You know, Pep Guardiola left Bayern and so that’s the world of football for coaches. Coaches come and go, the most important is how you leave, in my opinion, it is the type of impact you have on the people around you while you are there, and this is what I’m focused on. I’m not focused on fearing.”
Mokwena then also referred to the sad passing of former Sundowns player Motjeka Madisha, saying he has learnt that everything in life has an ending.
“I actually said to the players the other day, I said, after I saw the late [Motjeka] Madisha in a burnt car and his body like that, all fear left my body at that moment,” he added.
“When you’re not even afraid of dying. You become a little bit more fearless in a sense that you understand that life is about a beginning and an end, and that’s the process, and that’s what life speaks to you about. Whether you look at it from a space where you look at nature, everything starts and everything ends.
“And so you’ve got to be prepared, not only for the beginning but even while you are at the beginning, you’ve got to prepare yourself for the end and understanding that nothing lasts forever.
“And what I would like is to have great feelings about my time here and my experiences here and try to do the best that I can.”
