SuperSport United coach Tembo ready to conquer PSL after La Liga football education

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The Zimbabwean recently completed a four-week LaLiga coaching class and declares himself ready to deliver the league crown for Matsatsantsa

SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo feels he now has a rich football mind to guide his side to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) title in the next few seasons following a LaLiga Masterclass course.

Between May and June, Tembo had virtual football coaching interaction with Celta Vigo coach Oscar Garcia, Athletic Bilbao tactician Gaizka Garitano as well as Juan Florit Zapata, a coordinator of LaLiga Sports Projects Department.

While SuperSport’s chances of winning the league title this season are slim, Tembo feels the future is secure for Matsatsantsa who last claimed the league crown in 2010.

“Most definitely [expect me to be a title-winning coach in the next few seasons]. I think LaLiga has really played a huge role for me in my development and my confidence as a coach,” Tembo told Goal.

“I would also love to continue learning from them especially when everything has settled down. I would like to further my knowledge through LaLiga. I think if you look at our team we haven’t been far off for the past two seasons.

“Last season was very close. At some point with only four games to go we were four points away from the log leaders.”

As an interim coach, Tembo led SuperSport to a seventh spot finish at the end of the 2017/18 season, before settling for position six last term and the Pretoria side are currently third in the current campaign.

The LaLiga education Tembo undertook included how to develop a seamless transition strategy for players moving from the academy into a first-team environment.

With the coronavirus negatively impacting on most clubs' finances, promoting academy players would be the best option for most teams.

Midfielders Teboho Mokoena, Sipho Mbule and Oswin Appollis are some of the players who rose from the SuperSport youth ranks in recent years and are considered the club’s future.

“I think for us as a club with all the difficulties we are seeing being caused by the pandemic, we might not have much or not even have anything to spend on the market in terms of bringing in new players,” said Tembo.

“So it was very important for us to make sure that we get as much knowledge as we can in terms of how we can be able to transition our young players from our academy into the first-team environment. Our academy is very important to us.

“That’s the route which we want to take. For the past two seasons since I took over we haven’t been spending much on the market. We have been affording opportunities to the young players from the academy.

"That is the direction which we are taking. It was very important for me to get in-depth knowledge from LaLiga to use that in our environment.”

LaLiga South Africa Sports Projects & Corporate Social Investment Coordinator, Ruan van der Walt says the online classes were meant to “further Kaitano’s football education” and “broadening his interest in football and assist him in a way we can with our methodology. LaLiga has one of the best methodologies in the world.”

2020-07-21 23:00:03

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