Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face, the ou mense used to say.
And the saying got me thinking as we see what’s happening over at Cape Town City.
On Monday, the club put their coach Jan Olde Riekerink on “administrative leave”.
As I was trying to find out what was going on, mense were asking me what does that even mean?
Well, folks. It’s what you do to fire someone you can’t fire.
Now, I haven’t yet figured out what triggered the situation or why chairman John Comitis can’t pull the trigger and send Riekerink home during a pandemic, but the whole situation is embarrassing for the club.
If you can’t summarily dismiss someone, just how serious was the Dutchman's offence?
City don’t want to reveal what’s going on, due to the sensitive nature of the situation, in case Riekerink has legal recourse.
So maybe it’s just some headbutting going on. Either way, for me, it’s not a good look.
Riekerink has led the team to just five wins in 19 PSL games this year and 10 all season.
Can’t he just be sacked for that form?
Apparently not. With City still in the top half of the PSL standings, the coach seems to be doing his job relatively well.
Take into account the fact that they aren’t getting the results their football deserves, then again Riekerink isn’t doing so bad.
Whatever the situation with Taariq Fielies was after he was dropped for hugging former coach Benni McCarthy after last week’s 5-1 pak by AmaZulu, it does reveal one thing.
And that was how deeply unpopular a decision it was for the club to fire Benni.
Whether it was Riekerink or whoever who came in, the players miss their old coach.
Riekerink has been unpopular since he arrived.
And I really can’t say why. He seems like a perfectly nice guy and patient coach.
He has a strange sense of humour, but so do most Dutch coaches in football – think Foppe de Haan and Louis van Gaal.
Getting back to Benni though, I think City were too quick to get rid of the Cape legend for having a big bek in the media.
Ja, he’s raw, but he kept the club relevant.
And with him coming back to haunt in such a spectacular way, must be shaking the club to the core.
While Benni was being tapped to coach Bafana Bafana after taking AmaZulu from 13th to top of the PSL in the week of giving his old club a helse pak, while you try to fire a coach you don’t have the right to, has got to hurt.
And it’s just a bunch of bad decisions that got them here.
Once they sort out the situation with Riekerink, they may have to think about the role of assistant coach Aaron Mokoena too.
Why hasn’t the Bafana Bafana legend taken the reins, rather that Diogo Peral?
Seems strange to me. No disrespect to Peral, but the Axe barking orders from the sideline will give the opposition more to think about just from his sheer presence.
Maar nou ja.
It would be even more ironic if City fall out of the top eight altogether in these remaining four games.
And while I’m not wishing that on the club, it will definitely leave me thinking that you shouldn’t cut off your nose to spite your face.