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| On the move: Cavin Johnson |
CAVIN JOHNSON has finally made official his departure from Platinum Stars after a season which saw the Crocodiles from Phokeng so nearly take the PSL by storm.
Dikwena finished second behind Kaizer Chiefs - by just one point - and reached the semi-finals of the Nedbank Cup. But as I said A MONTH AGO (see tweet below) Johnson has called time on his reign a fortnight of wrangling with the Royal Bafokeng Kingdom, owners of the club.
That's the official version. In truth of course, Cavin had made his decision months ago. Just as Gavin Hunt, the SuperSport United coach, made his decision to decamp to Bidvest Wits not long after Christmas.
While players and fans carried on happily "giving their all for the boss" in both Phokeng and Tshwane, both coaches had made up their minds. And if you want proof of this assertion see my tweet on n May 18, at 6.25pm, it looked like this: https://twitter.com/nealcol/status/335778181174943744.
If you go to the link, you'll see all the doubters questioning my prediction of Johnson to SuperSport United, though Hunt's move to Bidvest Wits was never really questioned. Suggestions he is on R750,000 a month are of course, ridiculous. He's on around half that, with bonuses. Jose Mourinho returned to Chelsea today on a salary of around R10m a month, AFTER tax. So let's not get in to figures.
Today, finally, the merry-go-round has turned, two weeks after Johnson's submitted a resignation letter suggesting he needed to move closer to Tshwane for "family reasons".
But that's ridiculous. Johnson knows SuperSport, expensively backed by DSTV, have big plans. With Stanley Matthews now the CEO at Matsatsantsa a Pitori (The Swanky Boys, The Trendsetters).
I've long been a fan of Johnson. I wrote this after seeing his side come back from the death in the Nedbank Cup quarter-final against Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld: http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2013/04/cavin-johnson-and-platinum-stars-what.html
But despite his performance this season - he lost out on the PSL Coach of the Season only to double-winning Stuart Baxter at Kaizer Chiefs - Johnson has spent the season looking over his shoulder. His assistant Allan Freeze has always been highly regarded in Phokeng.
Johnson and Freeze were installed as joint coaches after Owen De Gama's controversial departure two seasons ago, but Johnson eventually got the nod as big boss.
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| March: Phala with Matthews |
From Moroka Swallows he has Bennett Chenene and David Mathebula - they signed pre-contracts as long ago as January - while the impressive Senegalese striker Mame Niang will move from neighbours AmaTuks.
And of course, he can also call on his own Stars stars. In March, Thusa Phala was snapped up by former PSL CEO Matthews - his mother Suzan works at SuperSport as an events manager - along with fellow Dikwena man Enocent Mkhabela.
It worries me a lot that those deals were made in March, around the time Hunt was finalising his deal at Wits and, presumably, Johnson was agreeing his move to SuperSport United.
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| Breaking the news: my Cavin Johnson tweet, May 18 |
Will Johnson do as well at SuperSpot as he did at Platinum Stars? Time will tell. Follow me on twitter @nealcol for updates.
If this is indeed the truth it would be really disapointing. I really saw Cavin doing great things with Dikwena. He also needed another season with Stars to show that his feat this term was no fluke.
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