I can’t say for sure I know what being
unemployed is like, but I imagine it’s no fun at all, especially if you have a glowing CV. You can’t be too picky. Actually, you can’t afford to be fussy when you are in that predicament even though you know what the ideal job should look like.
In football, however, you kind of have to be a specialist and that’s what Gordon Igesund was before he took up the Highlands Park job in October. There was romanticism about the gig - the former Bafana Bafana mentor returning to a side he played for with distinction 47 years ago and dreaming of making them dark horses in the title race.
Don’t laugh, he really thought he could pull it off. After all, Igesund has won Premier League titles with unfancied sides before in Manning Rangers (1997) and Santos (2002).
In that sense, he wasn’t wrong to dream given how hard the Highlands Park management had worked in getting experienced players to help keep the club in the elite league following promotion. While firing Alan Freese - after just five games - was a notable error, replacing him with Igesund was an even bigger blunder.
The board will not want to admit this. However, as PSL rookies, the feeling was that they were already considered to be among the relegation candidates even before they kicked a ball in the top-flight. By virtue of being in uncharted waters, it was an easy prediction to think they’d be fighting to avoid the drop. Freese, who got them promoted via the play-offs in June last year, was the right fit.
Igesund was a Hail Mary for their lofty ambitions.
It was only on Sunday afternoon that the coach managed to secure what was the club’s third win of the season in 20 matches when they beat Free State Stars at Goble Park Stadium in a clash described as a relegation scrap. With Freese having registered a single league victory before his departure, this was Igesund’s second since he arrived. Quite difficult to imagine that a four-time championship winning coach has only won two games in nearly five months.
And with the win away from home, Highlands Park remained second from bottom of the table - they have been running around in circles.
When a job is not for you, sometimes you must have enough courage to say ‘Thanks, but no thanks’.
But the problem with Igesund is that he’s done his rounds in the PSL having coached as many as nine clubs in the elite league. So maybe the only jobs left for him, he feels, are at newly promoted sides desperate for someone with his expertise.
He’s probably wondering what he got himself into when he agreed to replace Freese. But he is also likely to be gone in no time - the 60 year old doesn’t quite have the staying power. To date, only Rangers and Ajax Cape Town were able to hold on to Igesund for more than two years, with the rest either sacking him or accepting his resignation 24 months or so into the job.
Igesund is Mr Fix It, and he is pretty damn good at it. But Highlands Park didn’t need fixing, the board just needed to be patient. Now they are paying the price.
@superjourno