On Saturday, the reason behind Orlando Pirates’ parting of ways with
their striker coach Scott Chickelday was revealed. In early January, the
English coach had joined the Buccaneers as a striker coach without the
club providing any details. Head coach Jose Riveiro had acknowledged
Chickelday’s addition to the technical team, especially given the evolving
game which requires specialists.
Pirates had a clear problem of scoring goals, as up to their 15th league
game against Cape Town City, they were yet to score a goal in the
second-half. However, a week after Chickelday’s involvement, they
eventually scored second-half goals for the first time this season in the
3-1 win over Golden Arrows and actually went on to score 10 goals in the
five games during the time the former Tottenham Hotspur striker coach was
with the team.
Chickelday again announced his departure from Pirates on social media,
without any details from the Houghton-based side. According to Soccer
Laduma, Chickelday had joined the Buccaneers on a short-term deal. The
Siya crew has been informed that Chickelday works as a consultant, getting
in and out to address specific issues and moving on.
It would also be apparent that Chickelday’s services would not come cheap
to work full-time at Pirates, especially considering that in addition to
his former teams in England’s top two divisions, including Queens Park
Rangers, he also trains high calibre professional players individually.
His clients include Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins, Liverpool’s Harvey
Elliot and Chelsea attacker Xavier Simons.
Mamelodi Sundowns recently announced the appointment of Michael Loftman as
their set piece coach, indicating that the game is moving in the direction
of having various specialists in the technical department. However, these
developments are at the early stages in the South African game and clubs
are seemingly not yet in a position to appoint high calibre, let alone
international coaches, as specialists to the technical team on a full-time
basis.
