Johannesburg - Swallows FC are set to announce who their new coach will be during the course of next week.
The Dube Birds had an underwhelming past season as they needed the promotion/relegation playoffs to save their top-flight status and were in last season’s relegation battle.
Dube Birds chairman David Mogashoa confirmed that the club’s coach Dylan Kerr’s contract is ending and added that they will soon have talks with him.
“We will make announcements once we have finalised the 2022/23 squad and the position of the head coach. It is an open secret that coach Kerr’s contract ends 30 June 2022. Kerr is currently out of the country. We will have a meeting with him next week when he returns,” wrote Mogashoa on social media.
While Kerr earned praise for helping Swallows avoid the drop, Mogashoa has also steered clear from heaping praise upon the Malta born coach.
“He (Kerr) led the club over 18 games. With that amount of games, we should have finished around 8 to 10th and should not have been fighting relegation,” Mogashoa said while speaking on SABC.
It remains to be seen if Swallows will retain the services of Kerr who has earned himself a reputation in South Africa when it comes to helping teams avoid the drop. The 57-year-old also helped Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) avoid the drop in the 2020-2021 season, while also leading TTM to a surprise Nedbank Cup title that season. However, the club opted to release him upon rebranding as Marumo Gallants at the start of last season.
Should Swallows opt for a new coach, they will not be short of candidates.
Three high profile coaches that they can potentially speak to that are currently without jobs are Dan Malesela, Gavin Hunt and Ernst Middendorp. Malesela and Middendorp were both released by Gallants and Maritzburg United respectively while Hunt previously led Swallows over five years, before leaving to take charge of SuperSport United in 2007.
Mogashoa did also concede that it would be unfair to blame the club’s struggles from last season on Kerr.
“I would not blame the coach because he came in and inherited a bloated squad. Players were unhappy as most were not playing. That is the reason I would also not say that the coach saved the club,” added Mogashoa.
IOL Sport