WATCH: Steve Komphela predicts a 'stormy’ start to life after Rulani Mokwena for Sundowns

FILE - Steve Komphela has rejoined Mamelodi Sundowns as senior coach following the sacking of Rulani Mokwena. Photo: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers

FILE - Steve Komphela has rejoined Mamelodi Sundowns as senior coach following the sacking of Rulani Mokwena. Photo: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers

Published Jul 18, 2024

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Mamelodi Sundowns senior coach Steve Komphela has admitted the coming season will be a difficult one for the reigning league champions.

Komphela rejoined the club in the off season following the sacking of Rulani Mokwena, who was let go despite leading them to a seventh-straight league trophy.

The 57-year-old Komphela has been roped in to assist Manqoba Mngqithi as the club look to continue their dominance of South African football.

Speaking to the club’s Pitchside podcast, Komphela, as philosophical as ever, said it will take time to get the club up to speed after a turbulent off-season that saw them lose Mokwena and a number of key players.

“We are just looking forward to the season, with the changes it’s obviously going to be a moment of development,” Komphela said on the podcast.

“Then it goes back to what I once said, and somebody was laughing at me, that in any team development, there are five stages that Bruce Tuckman (an American psychologist) once spoke about.

“He said: ‘When you form a new team or develop a new brand, there’s a forming phase, you have the storming phase, the norming phase, the performing phase and then excellence’.

“Now at the beginning, there’s going to be a bit of a storm which is normal because I’m now taking a seat that (was) taken by you. You feel a bit uncomfortable.

“It’s like at your home when you are introducing a new pet, now this set of dogs are like ‘wait a minute, what’s happening here?’ the discomfort is normal. That’s the storming phase.

“The quicker you hit the norming phase, the quicker you will hit the performing phase. The quicker you get to the performing phase, you will excel. These are the stages we have to accept, know they exist, and we have to go through them.

“We have to normalise things quickly enough so that we can perform.”

IOL Sport