Michel pays price after Sundowns fans protest

Frenchman Henri Michel parted company with Mamelodi Sundowns Tuesday after failing to justify the highest salary of a club coach in South Africa.

His five-month stay could not stir the sleeping giants and a heavy league loss to Pretoria neighbours SuperSport United last Thursday followed by a shock cup exit spelt the end for the 75,000-dollar-a-month man.

Police and security officials had to restrain supporters chanting ‘Michel must go” after Sundowns fell 1-0 to unfashionable Platinum Stars in the Cup and the Frenchman left the stadium in a police vehicle.

Traditionally, a police escort leaves a coach in South Africa with no option but to quit and like so many previous departures, the exit of Michel was wrapped in diplomatic language.

Club owner Patrice Motsepe, a mining magnate ranked among the wealthiest South Africans, said in a statement that Michel “made a huge contribution to the standard and quality of football at Sundowns and in South Africa”.

Michel actually struggled to get out of first gear with his star-studded squad until a run of five consecutive league wins lifted them to second and a sixth Premiership title seemed possible.

But a 2-0 defeat last month at bogey team Bay United, the bottom club on the table, derailed Sundowns ambitions and they are 11 points adrift of SuperSport with five rounds left.

And as Sundowns meekly surrendered the Cup trophy, emotionless Motsepe sat beside Trott Moloto, the former South Africa coach he fired to make way for former France manager Michel.

Moloto is still at the club and another former Sundowns and South Africa coach in the employ of Motsepe, Romania-born Ted Dumitru, will take chrage until the season ends in May.

Age has not mellowed 69-year-old Dumitru, who possesses one of the sharpest tongues in South African football and did not spare 61-year-old Michel nor French assistant Florrent Motta.

“We had the likes of Trott Moloto and he should have engaged him, but did not. He chose his own assistant whom, unfortunately, was clueless about football in this region.

“The players could not get the desired results because they lacked enthusiasm and confidence and I will meet them within a few days to find out why,” promised Dumitru.

After guiding France to third place at the 1986 World Cup, Michel set up shop in Africa, coaching Morocco (twice), Cameroon, Tunisia and Ivory Coast plus leading clubs Raja Casablanca of Morocco and Zamalek and Egypt.