Former Kaizer Chiefs interim head coach and Head of Academy Cavin Johnson has revealed the behind-the-scenes details of how he was offered the job, while sharing the one regret he has about his time at Naturena.
Johnson joined Chiefs as Head of Academy in September 2023 but with the first team in turmoil under Molefi Ntseki, was promoted to interim head coach by the club's hierarchy in a bid to salvage what at that point already looked to be a disastrous season.
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Johnson fared no better than his predecessor as the team won just one of their last 10 league matches of the season and slipped to a 10th-place finish – their lowest in the PSL era.
Speaking on 94.7's MSW on Tuesday, the former Platinum Stars coach gave an honest account of the lessons and regrets from his time with South Africa's most-supported side.
"In one moment, yes, I do [have regrets]. I think of how I went in and how I went out. I always say, last in, first out," shared the 65-year-old.
"But yes, I regret some of it and some of it I will cherish for the rest of my life. But at the same time, I will put it down as one, being a learning curve and we're looking at certain... how it happened, why it happened and how it came to the end. You never say you never learned anything, I learned a lot.
"The lesson I learned is that I have to give credit to the chairman [Kaizer Motaung] for building such an institution, for making it what it is and for having 16 million people follow them.
"How they follow them, why they follow them and for what they follow them, it's all entwined into this great club called Kaizer Chiefs. He has to get all the credit because he built it.
"What I like is that I was there for a particular job. I got a call from the chairman himself into his office and he said: 'Please, I have a team and I need you to coach the team'. In my naivety – I call it naivety now because we can all analyse anything after – I thought, you know, at Platinum Stars I did the job in the same situation. I went to AmaZulu, they deducted six points.
"The chairman came and I say now, in tears, and I said, 'Don't worry, Mr Chairman, we are going to save the club, I will save the club'.
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"So, for me, it was a situation like that and I said here is a chairman asking me can I take his team, but it's not just any team, it's Kaizer Chiefs.
"I thought, well, with the experience I have, I should be able to do it again, I should definitely be able to do it again, but I didn't."
Johnson went on to add that if he were to be offered the same role again, he would decline.
"Now in hindsight, the answer would be no."