Steve Komphela on managing Swallows’ alleged ‘bad boys’

The Dube Birds were quick to recruit midfielder Andile Jali, strikers Gabadinho Mhango and Dumisani Zuma, three high profile stars whose discipline has been questioned at their previous clubs in the past. 

Komphela, having worked with the trio prior to his Swallows appointment, addressed the perception they are troublemakers. 

"If you're dealing with a genius, at some point of their life, if the task is too simple, they start to look for something else – a distraction, then we call them delinquents," defended Komphela.

"No, they are geniuses. AJ [Jali] has an amazing personality, you can't question that. Well, he might have issues with injuries or maybe getting into top shape, and the guy is no more 22 or 24, to be honest.

"But he still has the effect, he still has the energy, and he sees the game. He's a great influence in the dressing room."

It’s early days, but Komphela appears to have already brought the group together and the chemistry on the pitch is beginning to bear fruit. 

Now, the camaraderie you talk of should not just be some camouflage or just powder on a table that you can blow out, it must be deep and entrenched, it must be genuine," he explained.

"It's easy to fake stuff. If you look at how they celebrated the goal he [Mhango] scored, I did not even know. 

"There's this thing with me and Mhango that I always make him do push-ups and all of that. Even the first time I met him in Klerksdorp when I was still at Free State Stars, the first encounter was push-ups.

"When he scored, I'm sure he was playing for [Bloemfontein] Celtic then, I was at another club, and after he scored against me, he came to my bench and did push-ups, reminding me of the punishment I gave him in Klerksdorp."

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