Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy says he is learning from his mistake in rookie season

Bafana Bafana’s all-time leading goal scorer was a somewhat surprise replacement for Eric Tinkler at the Citizens, with club owner John Comitis showing faith in the unproven coach by handing him the reigns for his first stint as a head coach.

McCarthy acknowledged that his chairman took a risk in his appointment, but is proud of his efforts so far, and is happy to see a number of other young coaches in the PSL getting a chance to shine.

“For me‚ it’s my first time ever I’m in the hot seat,” he re-iterated.

“A lot of people don’t believe ex-players have the capability of becoming coaches or they don’t trust us to think we can do it. They prefer the merry-go-round of old coaches.

“The chairman has ostrich-sized huevos [Spanish term for testicles] to give somebody like me an opportunity to be in charge of his team – that takes massive huevos. It takes a lot of courage for a guy to take a risk like that.

“Previously you had the likes of Shaun Bartlett given a try, but now [club chairmen] don’t really want to take a chance anymore.

“Fadlu [Davids] had years been an interim or caretaker, and then every time they’d put an experienced guy over him. They never wanted to invest in us, so it’s nice that we’re now seeing more and more ex-players given an opportunity, and young coaches are coming up, and not being afraid to fail.”

The 40-year-old McCarthy admits he is still growing as a coach, but is learning from his errors.

“In this job there is no chance in hell that you are going to be successful [all the time]; you have to fail along the way,” he admits.

“But I haven’t led City into relegation, I’m still in the top eight so it’s not a bad start. I’m only learning and I’m only going to get better.

“The first year is always a learning curve and I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I’ve learnt from it.

“Next season‚ if I’m still here‚ then I’m a little bit more experienced. I can then kick on from there.”

When asked about what he would define as a successful first season, McCarthy was frank in his reply.

“My target has always been to get the team into a top eight position, as that’s a bit respectable,” he said. “They did finish third last season – I’m not sure if we are capable of doing that again, but the players are up for a fight, there are still six games to go and a lot of points to gain.

“But with a top eight finish, I’d be very, very happy and it would be a hugely successful season for me in my first season, having never coached anywhere, not even at Under-10 level.

“That I didn’t relegate the team for me would be a class season!”