Mamelodi Sundowns’s appointment of Portuguese Miguel Cardoso points to a massive disrespect for Manqoba Mngqithi and the brilliant job he has been doing since taking over from Rulani Mokwena.

The club announced former Sporting CP assistant manager and Porto youth coach Cardoso’s arrival on Tuesday afternoon.

Sundowns are currently top of the Betway Premiership and have just dropped three points from their eight games. They are doing brilliantly and are well on course to win an eighth straight league title.

Cardoso’s appointment comes as a massive surprise.

One – it came completely out of nowhere. It was made without the club saying they had fired Mngqithi.

Two – in a journeyman coaching career that’s seen him take charge of clubs in Portugal, Greece, France, Spain and Tunisia, he’s not had much success.

He lasted just 10 months at Esperance in Tunisia, and was given the boot just two months ago after a string of poor results. He did, however, knock Sundowns out of the CAF Champions League last season with the Tunisian giants.

In both legs of their Champions League semi-final, Esperance kept things tidy at the back while giving Sundowns, who had the lions’ share of the ball possession, little space to play their natural game. Could that game have convinced the Brazilians to make the appointment?

So, why fire Mngqithi? What more do the Sundowns hierarchy want from him? Firing a coach who is winning, and winning well in the club’s bread-and-butter competition, just does not make any sense.

Sure, Sundowns have been slow out of the blocks in the Champions League campaign, and failed to win the MTN8 and Carling Knockout Cup after a historic campaign the previous season, but under the former Golden Arrows coach Mngqithi, they were headed in the right direction.

But that’s how things work at Sundowns, isn’t it? Just last season, Rulani Mokwena was fired despite guiding the club to a seventh straight title last season.

Sundowns have seemingly adopted a Real Madrid-type approach where winning or being competitive in the league is just not good enough, they must also conquer the continent.

Under Mokwena they failed to do so. Under Mngqithi, they started with two draws and are facing an uphill battle to advance to the next stage.

This is not the first time the club have pushed Mngqithi aside, though.

Two years ago, after a poor result in the league, the 53-year-old was demoted to assistant coach having served as co-coach along with Mokwena. He’s been disrespected before, so it’s no surprise that it’s happened again.

Hopefully he will now find a club that will appreciate his abilities as a football coach.

IOL Sport