Two wins may have steadied Kaizer Chiefs, but they should not overshadow the structural mistake made weeks earlier — failing to release Nasreddine Nabi’s entire technical team when they dismissed him.
Chiefs have shown improvement. They’ve secured a place in the CAF Confederation Cup group stages, sharpened performances and put themselves in position for a realistic top-five finish.
But even with those positives, the rebuild is incomplete — because the club tried to move on from Nabi without fully stepping away from him.
This becomes even more glaring when remembering that Nabi only agreed to join Chiefs on the condition that he bring his entire technical team with him. That was his non-negotiable. Chiefs agreed. The club built its tactical, physical and analytical structure around his people.
Then they fired him — but kept most of the staff he insisted on.
The two men now guiding the team, Cedric Kaze and Ben Khalil Youssef, have been handed leadership of a structure designed entirely for Nabi’s philosophy. They are working within a framework they did not build and did not choose.
Across their first 10 matches, Kaze and Youssef have produced four wins, four draws and two defeats — a balanced return that reflects both progress and the limits of inheriting someone else’s system. You cannot properly build your own identity inside the architecture of another coach.
The timing for a clean break was ideal. A new coach brought in immediately after Nabi’s departure would have enjoyed early-season breathing room and, crucially, the major window coming next month: the AFCON break, which offers a rare three-to-four-week mini-pre-season.
It was the perfect chance to reset conditioning, refine game models and rebuild the dressing-room atmosphere.
Instead, Chiefs head into that break still carrying remnants of Nabi’s blueprint. Even their impressive qualification for the Confederation Cup group stages sits within a system not fully aligned to future ambitions.
This misstep is even more disappointing considering the momentum generated by last season’s Nedbank Cup triumph. That victory reopened belief in Naturena and should have been the launchpad for decisive long-term change.
Instead, Chiefs opted for a soft reset rather than a full reboot.
The club is improving. They’re stabilising. They’re competing on the continent. But they are doing so in increments rather than leaps.
A clean slate would have allowed a new coach to shape a new identity without inherited shadows. Chiefs had the opportunity — and let it slip.
Until they embrace complete structural renewal, their progress will remain promising but short of transformational.
