Orlando Pirates, the self-proclaimed ”Happy People” of the Premier Soccer League (PSL), on Wednesday found themselves looking more like the ”Harassed People” as an assortment of problems descended on the glum Buccaneers camp.
The increasingly shaky log leaders’ woes started with a defeat against Lamontville Golden Arrows — and then escalated at breakneck pace with a jarring 2-0 defeat against arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs in the pinnacle PSL derby on Saturday.
Then, on Wednesday, the PSL confirmed the Buccaneers had been summoned to a disciplinary hearing on Thursday to answer charges of unsavoury behaviour on the part of their supporters in the 80 000-strong crowd at the FNB Stadium.
Simultaneously, Steve Lekolea, the darling of Pirates’ supporters, announced there had been an irreconcilable breakdown in his negotiations for a new contract with the Buccaneers — with rumours spreading like wildfire that he was poised to move to Kaizer Chiefs or Supersport United.
Chiefs immediately denied any interest in Lekolea on Wednesday night and described any possible link between Amakhosi and the Pirates player as malicious gossip.
All very well, it would seem, except that Chiefs had said exactly the same thing 24 hours before signing former Pirates captain Jimmy Tau earlier in the season.
And the discontent of the ”Happy People” was rounded off when under-pressure coach Kosta Papic was reported to have vetoed his assistant, Tebogo Moloi, writing a weekly column in the Laduma magazine — because it critically undermined the work of the coach himself. — Sapa