Scottish coach Simon McMenemy, previously linked with Richards Bay FC and currently with Golden Arrows, has opened up on why he is keen to to coach in the PSL.
McMenemy, who was once the youngest national team head coach in the world, opened up to this website on his interest to migrate to South Africa.
"I've always had a keen interest in South Africa. I used to play in the university with two South Africans, they used to tell me about the league at home and since then I kind of have had one eye on the league," McMenemy told KickOff.
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"It's a place I fancy working at. I've worked in different countries, I've experienced different football concepts, mostly in south-east Asia. But guys like Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have been, for years, cool-sounding clubs, I always wanted to know a little bit about them. So, I've had my eye on the league for quite a while. It's always one of those leagues, if an opportunity came, I'd like to work in."
So, what is the Aberdeen-born coach's philosophy?
"In all honesty, I'll say I'm conventional. I've been in football for as long as I can remember and I've been coaching since I was a teenager. I started coaching professional in my 30s. At 32, I was the youngest national team head coach in the world with the Philippines.
"At the time, I was successful in my job and made a name for myself in the south-east Asia. That's why I ended up staying 13 years in South-east Asia. With the Indonesia national team, I had incredible experience, but there were a lot of things behind the scenes that affected the football," the 46-year-old said.
"I haven't been at any jobs [where] I was able to speak English, all the jobs in the last 13 years I've been working through a translator. That was another attraction of working in South Africa. The ability to speak English makes the difference."
The Scottish mentor was reportedly on the verge of joining the Namibia national team last year in November after he emerged as a preferred candidate to replace Collin Benjamin.
However, the Brave Warriors eventually left Benjamin in his post.
So, how true is that?
"It was an agent that proposed to me: 'Would you be interested?' I saw the country and I've always been attracted to work in Africa, it seems like a really fascinating place. It was an attractive proposition. I spoke to a lot of people who said it's a great place and we spoke a lot also about South Africa and I was keen," McMenemy confirmed.
"It's difficult to say what happened, because that's the conversation between the federation and the agent, I'm not aware. But yeah, we had an interview and I got to meet people. I don't know why it fell through, it was a shame because I had already informed my family. I was also linked with Zimbabwe, one or two other countries as well, because of my work with national teams."
Were you also once shortlisted by SuperSport United?
"Yes, there was interest from a couple of PSL teams, we had discussions. I don't like talking about things that couldn't happen. It was also through an agent. But at that point I was busy with the other projects," he revealed. .
"SuperSport is the one that showed most interest. They were happy to have me, but the deal didn't finalize. There was also interest from Chippa [United], I did a research, I was keen to go there. But it didn't quite work out in the end."
McMenemy, however, refused to talk about whether he had been contacted by Arrows.