Seven-year itch turning Gavin Hunt into a grumpy old man

SuperSport United Coach can't stop complaining as league success - his drug of choice - continues to evade him.

There is just no pleasing Gavin Hunt, is there? Even in victory, the SuperSport United coach maintains his grumpy demeanour, always finding something wrong with his team or whatever else he can.

He was at it again Tuesday night following Matsatsantsa a Pitori’s progression to the last 16 stage of the Nedbank Cup courtesy of a 3-1 victory via shoot-out from the penalty spot following a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes. Shandre Campbell and Khanyisa Mayo were the scorers.

“Obviously we would have been disappointed if we had lost,” he said post-match at the Lucas Moripe Stadium “We had lots of chances tonight. I don’t think we were at our best. We looked a little heavy all over. But most important is that we got through (because) we had not had a good run in the last Nedbank Cup competitions.”

It could be that the multiple-championship-winning coach is so used to success that nothing really pleases him.

This season in particular though, Hunt has had a lot to be grumpy about. If it is not the fact his team has to travel over 300km to play their home matches, it has been the depleted nature of his lean squad that got the highly decorated coach hot under the collar. And with SuperSport involved in continental competition, Hunt’s media conferences have somewhat resembled being an audience to a dentist’s root canal operation – the coach has complained that much.

Any hopes progression to the next stage of the country’s premier knockout competition would quieten him down a bit came to nothing on Tuesday night.

“We have a (CAF Confederation Cup) game on Sunday against the team from Egypt (Modern Future) in Polokwane. Then we go to Cape Town (for a league clash with the same City); then come back and go to Algeria (for their final CAF Confederation Cup group match against USM Alger) then arrive back Monday and play again on Wednesday (against Polokwane City). It is crazy, but we will see what we what we gotta do.”

The reality though is that successful teams get to play that much and being the league championship specialist he has established himself to be in the Premiership, Hunt is clearly frustrated at having to compete on many fronts.

A four-time championship winner - only Pitso Mosimane has won more PSL titles - Hunt has now gone six seasons without his ‘drug’ of choice and the ‘seven-year itch’ frustration is evident.

“The cups (knockouts) cloud competition, but in South Africa we love cops. But me, as a coach, I’d rather have a good league position.”

His cause is not helped by the fact he is in charge at a club where the chequebook is seemingly locked up in a vault. The seasonal loss of young promising stars that the club has worked hard at developing without them being replaced does not help his case.

And then there are injuries, particularly in the heart of the defence, which have been worse this season.

“Our squad is so depleted; we need to get a few players back- Tyson (Thulani Hlatshwayo), Ime (Okon) and Keegan (Johannes) for stability at the back. We played people out of position (tonight) but they lifted their hands up tonight. It was not a good performance, but a workmanlike performance.”

Next up for Hunt is Modern Future in a campaign that is essentially a lost cause with SuperSport bottom of the table with three points going into the penultimate round.

Fail to win at the Peter Mokaba Stadium against a team that beat them 1-0 in Egypt back in November and their continental campaign will be over.

As much as he has said he likes competing on the continent, exit from the Confederation Cup could well bring relief to a coach who is fast beginning to resemble a ‘grumpy old man’.