‘It wasn’t my team that I coached at Kaizer Chiefs’ – Hunt reveals

Former Kaizer Chiefs head coach Gavin Hunt says he wasn’t given an opportunity to sign his own players when he coached the club.

Under the 60-year-old coach, Amakhosi struggled in the league and ultimately finished 8th. It was a different story however as Hunt took Kaizer Chiefs to the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League for the first time. He was fired with a few matches remaining in 2021 and Chiefs ultimately lost 3-0 in the final to Al Ahly.

The cuurent SuperSport coach believes he wasn’t given a fair chance at Chiefs and Covid and transfer ban comp;icated things.

“But for me, it was the wrong time, the wrong place. It was a forced move,” Hunt on his move to Kaizer Chiefs.

“It was during Covid and Wits had just been sold, and I was the only one without a job after the players were bought by different clubs at the end of the season. I was like okay here we go. I am going to take some time out, but I don’t want some time out. Then I got a phone call, and they said ‘Listen, this is what’s happening. We’ve got a FIFA ban; we can’t sign any player,’” he told iDiski Times.

Hunt could not sign players as Kaizer Chiefs coach

“I said to them the team needs an overhaul and if you allow me to do it then it’s the right project for me. They said ‘perfect’. We agreed, ’ Let’s get through this year’ and when I looked at it, it was clear the team was really done. They were short, they were doing badly but I saw the [CAF] Champions League was a big gap for us.”

Hunt is still unhappy given the fact that he was booted out before Kaizer Chiefs’ semi-final CAF CL match with Wydad Casablanca. Amakhosi edged out Wydad 1-0 on aggregate under Arthur Zwane but made a suprise decision to demote him for the final in favour of returning Stuart Baxter.

“We didn’t have the pace, and the Champions League football is slow and boring, and I felt this team could have a go at it and we got into the semi-final, and I got fired with two matches to go. I was so upset about that. If they did not want me the next year, that’s fine. But leave me to finish,” Hunt said.

“But then there were a lot of things I maybe should have kept my mouth shut. There were a few things I spoke out on and said in meetings and in confidence and obviously it was taken somewhere else, and they did not like the way it was there,” he added.

Hunt worked with Middendorp’s players

With new Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi buying 10 players, Hunt said he wasn’t given the opportunity to build his own team.

“Now it’s happening exactly like I said back then and a guy [Nasreddine Nabi] is coming in and saying this and he wants to change everything, the whole team and now they are listening [but they didn’t listen to me]. That was disappointing but no bad vibes and no bad feelings. I was just disappointed I never had a chance to build a team of my own. That wasn’t my team that I coached at Chiefs. It was Ernst’s [Middendorp] team, which needed rebuilding, and they promised me we were going to do it, but we never did, and I faced the brunt with two games to go.”

Since returning to SuperSport United in 2022, Gavin Hunt has won four times against Kaizer Chiefs.

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