The Buccaneers, who won a ‘double Double’ as recently as the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, are currently being judged by those standards as Eric Tinkler’s side occupy a disappointing 11th place on the Absa Premiership table.
Pirates’ domestic form has certainly been affected by their CAF campaigns over the last three years, a fact that is apparent when one sees no league title or consistent challenge in four seasons including the current campaign.
Bucs have only managed to pick up the 2014 Nedbank Cup trophy since the days of Ruud Krol, and while Khoza knows success is always demanded, he is also aware that no team can dominate completely all the time.
“Some teams have been there [in Africa] before and that is why I am using Mr [Jomo] Sono as an example,” Khoza says, referring to when Jomo Cosmos were relegated from the NSL after reaching the semi-finals of the CAF Cup Winners Cup the same year.
“From us at Pirates it is quite remarkable what the team has done in terms of the performance. Since 2010 we have been to all the finals. No team in the history of the PSL has ever travelled the route that we have travelled and then come home and also performed.
“Mr Sono will tell you that before it became the Champions League that we know today, what it means to fall down or fall up [sic] because Mr Sono at that point he understood and tasted the effects of travelling into Africa, because those years it was worse than what it is now. But, you know that he had the capacity to bounce back [the following year] having had the effects of playing in Africa.
“He [Sono] is one of the few characters that was born into football which is why there is no problem bigger for him because he understands that there is this cycle in football. The cycle that you see at Chelsea, they have done everything but all of a sudden they are number 14 [13].
“In 1985 Pirates were number 15 and were nearly relegated and I think Jomo Sono won the league that year [Cosmos actually won the league in 1987 with Pirates finishing 11th],” Khoza recalls.
The Pirates boss adds that they are taking their current situation as a learning experience.
“We are working very hard because this is not a very comfortable position to be sitting in, but then it is also important as a learning experience that you must understand the feeling of being down there,” Khoza says.
“You never take your space for granted and you never take your position for granted, whether in your house, in your business, in church, anywhere. You must always do an assessment and reflect. That position gives us time to reflect about ourselves as individuals and as a team collectively.”