Kaizer Chiefs have not been able to produce a stable goalkeeper since Itumeleng Khune lost favour, and now the club's former shot-stopper Virgil Vries has revealed the reason why.
Khune's contract not being renewed by Chiefs did not come as a surprise, after the club revealed when he signed a one-year deal that it was his last as a player.
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However, what came as a surprise was that the veteran, who had been at Naturena for 25 years, was not retained in a different capacity.
The Soweto giants have struggled to find a stable and consistent number one since Khune fell out of favour three seasons ago, with spells in goals by Brandon Petersen and Bruce Bvuma often characterized by costly mistakes.
New signing Fiacre Ntwari has also not started well, having already received heavy criticism after keeping only one clean sheet in seven matches.
Vries, who was at Amakhosi between 2018 and 2019, has revealed the reason why goalkeepers at the club could not grow.
"I would love [for] Khune to be at the club and for goalkeepers to grow. But for you as a goalkeeper to grow while Khune is there is difficult. That's the other side of the coin," Vries said on SoccerBeat YouTube Channel.
"Because as much as Khune is there, you cannot be allowed to make the mistakes, to learn from your mistakes and grow because once you make the mistake, the next call is who?
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"I understand where the club would want to go, but we have to understand the human part. As much as we love Khune, when are we gonna allow other goalkeepers to grow and become better? You can't take anything away from that guy, the type of person he is, how he leads, but at the end of the day, that's the problem we're sitting with in South Africa, in terms of goalkeepers," Vries added.
Head coach Nasreddine Nabi will make a goalkeeping decision which could define their season, after revealing that Ntwari is back training following the injury he got with Rwanda during the FIFA break but is not guaranteed to start against Richards Bay on Wednesday.