Former Black Leopards coach Walter Rautmann has described how his former assistant coach at the club 'backstabbed' him in the midst of a dispute with management.
Famously known for pulling Limpopo teams out of the relegation quagmire, the outspoken mentor was often at the whim of club chairmen who were notorious for not keeping to their word.
Following last week's article by this website, where Rautmann revealed how management interfered in his job, even going as far as employing the services of three muti men, he now talks about his then assistant being 'used' in his battle with the hierarchy.
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"All the teams in Limpopo are the same. Let me tell you what [David] Thidiela did to me at Black Leopards. They suspended me. During half-time of our game against [Jomo] Cosmos the one season, he came into the change room and wanted me to change players as we were losing 1-0. I never dropped a point in Venda for all the teams I coached in Thohoyandou, so I was not ready [to do that] and I told him to go and sit at the top. Go to hell," Rautmann tells KickOff.
"Any case, I won the game 3-1 I think, and it was live on TV. Afterwards, Thidiela, in front of TV [cameras], wants to come and hug me and kiss me, [telling me] 'You're the best coach'. I told him, 'At half-time, I was a rubbish, now I am the king. Go stuff yourself!' Ha, ha. On Monday, he sent me a letter, [telling me] I'm suspended.
"I then called my lawyers from Jo'burg, we had a meeting about cancelling the contract whatever was going to happen," says the 78-year-old.
David Byrne, son to the late Budgie Byrne from Hellenic, was his assistant, with the two also enjoying a good personal relationship.
"But Thidiela tried to turn him against me," is Rautmann's bombshell revelation.
How so?
"At a meeting, when I looked outside, there were a few Black people sitting there, together David Byrne. So, I asked him, 'What are you doing here?' He replied, 'No, sorry, coach. Thidiela wants me to say something.'
"So, he turned him against me, Thidiela called him as a witness to tell some lies about me so he didn't have to pay my contract and whatever. David Byrne told me later that he [Thidiela] promised him that he will be the new coach, he will get bigger signing-on fees as long as he talks against me even if it was a lie. That was how low-class they are.
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"After what I did for them, having saved them from certain relegation the year before and going unbeaten in Venda, that's how he turned a good friend of mine against me. Disgraceful, you know. But any case, we agreed without calling him [Byrne] as a witness and other witnesses… my lawyers agreed to cancel the contract and they had to pay me out.
"That was the end of the story in Venda for after coaching three teams there and never losing a game at home out of maybe 80-100 games."