Igesund has been brought in at Highlands – the last local club that he played for in 1979 prior to leaving to play in Austria – with the primary mandate of making sure that they remain in the topflight at the end of the current season following a nervous start.
However, having managed to win the league title with Manning Rangers and Santos – two clubs that were also never given much of a chance - he knows too well how to talk a good game.
“When you get that feeling of winning a championship you don’t want to stop because it is a wonderful feeling,” says Igesund, who also won the championship at Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.
Highlands is the 11th local club that Igesund has been with since 1996 and the 17th that he has been involved with since he started out as a player coach at Witbank Aces 31 years ago.
“The club’s objective might be to remain in the league, my objective is not that. My targets are always fairly high. I am obviously not suggesting that Highlands Park will win the league this season because we have a big fight on our hands to survive, first priority is that and then the next priority is to finish as high as we can.
“Our plan in the near future is to challenge for the championship. What kind of coach will I be if I didn’t want to challenge for the championship? Then I will not be the right coach if I didn’t want to challenge for the championship. A club cannot just need a coach just to coach the team so that they survive. I don’t just want to survive, I want to try and show that I have more ambition.
“In most teams when I have been appointed when I employed they just think they will win the championship. It is not easy to win the championship. It is very difficult but that is what I thrive to do all the time,” he declares while then noting what his new club needs at the moment.
“I think this team needs a little bit of belief and we will have to change things a bit about the way that we are going to play. I need time to work with the players first but what matters is that players need to play to the strengths of the team,” he notes.
Igesund will be retaining the technical team that Allan Freese worked with in assistant coach Thierry Mulonzo and goalkeeper coach Stavros Tsichlas.
His first game in charge comes as soon as Friday evening in the Telkom Knockout first round against Chippa United at Makhulong Stadium (20h00).
The Telkom Cup is ironically the last trophy that he won while he was with SuperSport United.
However, it is in the league where the club's directors have their concerns.
“We haven’t had the kind of start that we wanted and we needed to be in a situation where we are guaranteed of our position in the PSL. Gordon is a highly experienced coach who played for Highlands Park and so his relationship with the club is strong. I have no doubt that he is the right person to take this club going forward. The first issue is that we don’t want to get ourselves into trouble. The timing for Gordon’s appointment is in sync,” says club co-director Larry Brookstone.
“Top 8 will be a bonus, we just want to stay in the premier division and that is why we have Gordon,” adds Sinky Mnisi, a co-director at the club.