Gavin Hunt hits out at Kaizer Chiefs for not allowing him to 'overhaul the team' - 'Now Nasreddine Nabi wants to change everything and they are listening'

Coach Ernst Middendorp was fired by Kaizer Chiefs after failing to help the team win the Premier Soccer League despite dominating for the better part of the 2019-20 season.

Gavin Hunt, who was a free agent after Bidvest Wits was dissolved, took over at Amakhosi.

He wanted to help the team get back to its former best as far as Mzansi football is concerned.

Hunt struggled to deliver in the Premier Soccer League despite helping Amakhosi reach the Caf Champions League final.

He was fired without tasting the last two games in the continent.

In his recent interview, the SuperSport United coach revealed the Glamour Boys were on their deathbed, but the management wasn't ready to accord him the support and time he needed to revive them.

The 60-year-old argues that if he had been given what Nasreddine Nabi is currently getting, the story would have been different.

"But for me, it was the wrong time, the wrong place. It was a forced move. 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.

“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. 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.

“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," Hunt continued.,

“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.”

Kaizer Chiefs have gone for a decade without silverware and it got worse last season when they finished 10th in the Premier Soccer League table.

Coach Nabi was brought to help rebuild the squad and take the team back to the top of Mzansi football.