“Kaizer Chiefs need to sign 11 new starting players”

Junior Khanye believes Kaizer Chiefs need drastic action under their new coach.

Khanye wants Chiefs to build a new team

Former Amakhosi winger Junior Khanye, via SoccerLaduma, believes that Kaizer Chiefs need 11 new starters. The club is waiting to seal a deal for oncoming head coach, Tunisian tactician Nasrreddine Nabi. Then they can formulate a coherent transfer strategy.

“It’s going to be difficult for Nabi to get the results instantly for Kaizer Chiefs. Does he know the club and its culture? Does he know South African football and understand the players? The way that team has been disjointed, it needs someone who has a better understanding of South African football, the players and the club’s culture,” said Khanye.

Khanye isn’t holding punches

“Now that he will be there by the sounds of it, I wish for the club to support him by signing him the right players. Chiefs need a whole new team, I’m talking about 18 new faces in the match-day squad, 11 starters and seven substitutes. That’s what is needed there for that team to be able to play beautiful football and produce results again. The rest of the players need to be released for the club to start afresh. We recently had AFCON and Chiefs had no players in Bafana Bafana for the tournament and what does that tell you? People were mad at Hugo Broos when he said that no players from Chiefs deserve to be in the national team, and so far, he has been proven right, there is no quality there,” he added.

Former Kaizer Chiefs winger Junior Khanye. Image: iDiski TV

Nabi will bring an entourage

Meanwhile, according to this same publication, Nabi will bring five technical team members including Frenchman Fernando Da Cruz. 52-year-old Da Cruz has an interesting background, having played professional futsal for France, collecting 55 caps. He’s been the assistant coach of Wasquehal in France and Mouscron in Belgium, before holding the top job at the latter in 2014. From there, he took charge of the Lille B side and ran scouting operations for a team famous for its recruitment of top talent and player sales with enormous profits. Most recently, he’s been the assistant at AS Far, Nasreddine Nabi’s club. Nabi will sign a deal with Chiefs this week, and then we’ll certainly be hearing more about Mr Da Cruz, who has experience working with Nicolas Pepe and Eden Hazard.

Nasreddine Nabi with AS FAR in Morocco. Image: @safootclassics/

New Kaizer Chiefs coach also wants to bring one of his players

Nasreddine Nabi has zeroed in on Tumisang Orebonye as his first potential signing as head coach at Naturena. The 28-year-old striker plays under Nabi at FAR Rabat and has 40 caps for the Botswana National team alongside Amakhosi centre-back Thatayaone Ditlhokwe. The prolific hitman has four goals and an assist from 15 league appearances in 2023-2024. That’s a healthy ratio of direct goal contributions. Orebonye only joined the club in January though, on a long contract, so Chiefs would need to shell out a hefty transfer fee. The 1.80m striker, who has featured in this season’s CAF Champions League, is valued at €450k (R8.7 million) by transfermarkt. Nabi has requested that the board make it happen.

Nasreddine Nabi has identified Orebonye as his first signing as Chiefs boss. Image: Facebook

Do you agree with Khanya’s critique? Which current Chiefs players are good enough to don the badge?

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