This is a plea to Clinton Larsen and his now former bosses at Bloemfontein Celtic - it’s not too late to turn back the clock.
On Monday afternoon the football fraternity was stunned to learn that Larsen, the only man to guide Phunya Sele Sele to silverware since 2005, had tendered his resignation following a disagreement with management.
Whatever the reasons, the coach claiming he was given an ultimatum to either make room for a second assistant or pack his bags, Celtic are the biggest losers. In Larsen, the club has parted ways with a typical one-club man.
These are very rare in the PSL, where it is standard procedure for coaches to play musical chairs.
“ have been a PSL coach for seven years, and six of those I spent at Celtic. My love and affiliation for the club has always been there,” Larsen told The Star in an interview revealing why he picked the lesser of two evils.
Despite his best efforts to explain why the club was so desperate to promote head of development Duncan Lechesa to join the senior team as Larsen’s assistant, owner Max Tshabalala didn’t exactly cover himself in glory when you carefully study the Absa Premiership log table.
Apart from the fact that Larsen was such a perfect fit for the Free State-based outfit, a win on Sunday against Mpumalanga Black Aces would have pushed them further up the table and within touching distance of title contenders Bidvest Wits and Mamelodi Sundowns. Celtic lost 2-0, prompting management’s bizarre request to the coach.
This is the PSL after all, and with the recent stop-start due to the international break and now the CAF Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal, it’s too early to place a bet on who will be crowned champions in May.
Celtic are hardly championship material, but with Larsen at the helm, that long-term project was no longer a pipe dream. All he needed was the full backing of Tshabalala and the rest of the club’s backroom staff to aim at punching above their weight.
Larsen ended a seven-year drought of trophies for one of South Africa’s most popular sides in recent times, guiding them to a Telkom Knockout title in 2012. It was Larsen who pleaded with management to refrain from being a selling club in order to compete with the so-called big clubs in the top-flight. That Gabadinho Mhango, Lerato Lamola and last year’s player of the season, Alfred Ndengane, are still contracted to the club speaks to the coach’s influence. Celtic, instead, stepped up their game during the transfer window in pre-season and recruited quality in goal-poacher Geofrey Massa from AmaTuks and Helder Pelembe on loan from Orlando Pirates.
And only Larsen seemed to command the respect of new faces as well as seniors at the club. To allow him to leave was an unimaginable error in judgment. – The Star