Before I get ripped off, let me start by saying that before the latter part of the season where Ruud Krol achieved the first historic treble for my beloved Bucs, I was not a passionate fan.
In fact, I was probably one of the mob that silently called for his head during the poor run of form, up until he eventually made me (and other skeptical Pirates fans at the time) eat humble pie and swallow it down with three trophies in a season.
And after that historic feat, Pirates was on the rise and so was my re-ignited passion for the team. In fact, I regretted not attending that thrilling final game of the season against Golden Arrows at Orlando Stadium.
From those exciting last few days of the season, I began to marvel at this master tactician in the orange shirt … yes, I’m talking about the genius who made the ‘happy people’ sit up and take notice of the exceptional talents of one-time fringe players like Oupa Manyisa and Tlou Segolela, then who formed the deadly midfield combination of the twin midgets Ace and AJ15.
Pirates was setting a standard that now made me look forward to the upcoming season and obviously our then pending endeavour into the continent. I was confident we would progress far under the guidance of this man in the orange shirt.
But our excitement was short-lived when, during the off-season break, our chairman Dr Irvin Khoza unceremoniously relieved Mr Krol of his coaching duties.
And what really breaks my heart the most is that, to this very day, the chairman has not given a straightforward explanation of his firing of Mr Krol.
Fast forward to the current Pirates, we are struggling under VV. Yes, we have had moments of brilliance and somewhat tactical dominance and amazing goals in a handful of games, enough to lead us into believing that VV was on the right track.
But, sadly enough, when it mattered most (namely the MTN 8 Derby final) and the recent Telkom Knockout semi-final (which was also a tribute to our late Nzori), we failed dismally.
In fact, VV is no different to our previous coach (Mr RDS), who in similar fashion led the team into four consecutive finals and giving us false hope that we would win them all, only to be silver medalists in all of them (under his tenure).
In closing, I still find myself wondering how far Pirates would be if Khoza had let Mr Krol continue for another season or two. In fact, judging by his record, especially after leaving Pirates, he has done reasonably well and won a continental competition!
That on its own showed that he has both local and continental competition pedigree. And why did Khoza let him go? I guess only he and Mr Krol will ever know.
But as an earnest plea to my chairman, for whatever reason you let go of Mr Krol, please put your pride aside and work things out and bring back Mr Orange shirt.
Football boardroom politics aside, we don’t care about that. We as fans care about the 11 men on the pitch and how they make us happy with the thrilling football under the guidance of a good coach. That is all we as fans need.
So please Mr chairman, bring back Mr Orange shirtm and maybe the treble days shall return and possibly go a step further than Mr RDS and get that elusive second star.
Do you have a rebuttal to this reader's view? Or do you have an opinion on something different? Send your response to ryan.cooper@media24.com and they may get published.