Cavin Johnson: It was the wrong time to take on Kaizer Chiefs

The former Platinum Stars, AmaZulu and Black Leopards boss took over from the sacked Molefi Ntseki in October last year with the team struggling for performances and results.

He was unable to make any significant improvements as Amakhosi ended the 2023/24 DStv Premiership season in a lowly 10th position – their worst in Premier Soccer League history.

Reflecting on his time with the Chiefs first team, Johnson explained that he needed to have taken the team from the start of the season if he was to make an impact.

He had initially joined Amakhosi as head of their youth academy but has since left the club.

Nasreddine Nabi has, meanwhile, been appointed new head coach and will have the pre-season to prepare his team alongside his own technical team as well.

Johnson told On The Whistle Podcast: “I do think that in one moment the SOS call was too premature for me and if I could do it again I would say no.

“The fact that the chairman called me and he asked me [to be the coach]. If it only it went back to what I thought I did previously did with Platinum Stars, with AmaZulu, I thought that ‘look, if you go with the same mentality and the same effort that you used at other teams it would work’.

“The culture at the team is very different to any other PSL team, because the chairman Dr. [Kaizer Motaung] has built such a big institution over the years, you have to start from the beginning [of the season], I believe that now.

“Like I say, it’s easy to say ‘I believe that now’. Give me the job now, at the beginning of the season and I’ll tell you exactly what to do and to don’t do at Kaizer Chiefs.

“Because I’ve acclimatised myself with who they are inside and then it would be successful. But if you took it like I did then exactly what you said – you’re walking into a minefield and you don’t know where the bombs are.”