Itumeleng Khune’s contract with Kaizer Chiefs FC football club is set to expire at the end of the season, however he is expected to get a contract extension because of his influence at the club.
Kaizer Chiefs head coach Arthur Zwane has weighed in on the influence of veteran goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune following their 2-1 win over Royal AM over the weekend.
Khune was seen encouraging and guiding his teammates from the bench which led to the team qualifying for the Nedbank Cup semifinals.
As a result, Amakhosi will face arch-rivals Orlando Pirates in the tournament’s semis.
Coach Zwane maintains that Khune is still part of his plans given his extensive experience of the beautiful game. And his understanding of the club’s culture tops list, having joined the side at the very young age of 12.
‘HE IS STILL ONE OF THE GOALKEEPERS’
‘10111’, as he is popularly known within the football circles, believes that the 35-year-old goalie is vitally important to his side to achieve the club’s goals.
“He is still one of the goalkeepers. You know, if anything happens to Brandon [Petersen] and Bruce [Bvuma], he is there to step in,” said Zwane.
“So, we create competition, as I have been saying. Unfortunately, there are some of the players that are lacking a little bit behind.
“And you don’t want to put them in the field with the idea for them to fail. We want them to strive and improve on their game.”
ARTHUR ZWANE PRAISES SENIOR PLAYERS
The 49-year-old mentor continued: “You might have seen the balance of the squad. Even when we made changes, we tried to make sure we don’t lose our structure. Our structure was very key to not allowing our opponents to come at us.
“With the support of our senior players, our plans worked very well. They led by example, switched on and as I said discipline is everything.”
However, Itumeleng Khune was dropped from the starting XI because of individual errors, this was according to 10111, in January.
Zwane: I dropped Khune and Kwinika due to their mistakes, they’re costing us points
Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has revealed Itumeleng Khune and Zitha Kwinika were dropped against Royal AM owing to ‘individual mistakes’.
“When it comes to Itu and Kwinika, we have been playing well, but too many individual mistakes and it’s costing us points,” Zwane told the media.
“Unfortunately, when you look at the goals we conceded, [it was] individual errors, not team mistakes and those things happen, but we had to make changes here and there because we have a big squad.
“We have to give other players the opportunities as well to showcase their talent and they responded positively, but you look at this game, and many other games, the performance is the same, the only difference is the scoreline.
“We managed to take our chances, it is not that they performed badly.”
The Soweto giants will play their next league game against Sekhukhune United. The game will take place on Sunday, 23 April away from home.
