Mninawa Ntloko
19 November 2008
opinion
Johannesburg — THEY certainly do not come any more hostile than fiery Orlando Pirates coach Rudi Krol.
Such is the Dutchman's dislike for the media that he usually doesn't even bother to hide it.
According to Pirates insiders, one of the first requests the man made after joining the club in June was that he be kept as far away as possible from scum like us. That pretty much set the tone for Krol's relationship with the media and he's become the most inaccessible coach in the premiership. Not that any of us gives a flying toss, mind you.
In the few times when he's been obligated by the Premier Soccer League's sponsors to host Pirates' media days, the man has barely been able to hide his contempt for these exercises.
A case in point was earlier this month when Pirates faced Soweto rivals Moroka Swallows in the quarterfinals of the Telkom Knockout.
It was classic Krol and he hurled an array of curt answers that were intended to stop his inquisitors dead in their tracks.
Most of the time he did not even bother to answer the questions that were asked and delivered fiery responses that were pretty much intended to intimidate his audience.
The ploy seemed to work until a hulking colleague decided he'd had enough of the blatant arrogance that was displayed by the Pirates coach and demanded that Krol answer the question that was asked.
The colleague - who strikes so much fear in Joel Natalino Santana that the beleaguered Brazilian is usually visibly delighted when the said hack is not present at Bafana Bafana press conferences - looked Krol dead in the eye and told him to answer the question.
After what seemed an eternity, Krol visibly toned down the hostility and the scowl he seems to wear permanently on his face slowly disappeared. He actually answered the question in a less hostile attitude. The gasps were heard from Johannesburg to Amsterdam.
Krol's supporters would have us believe that perhaps this guy's hostility is nothing but a defence mechanism that is motivated by his inability to express himself properly in English. At face value, the argument seems to have some merit as in the few interviews that Krol has given, it was apparent that he was struggling to express himself.
It certainly was the case ahead of the derby against Kaizer Chiefs at the weekend when Krol left the gathered media in stitches during a press conference. When asked if he was concerned that the Bucs had managed to score only four goals in seven matches, he said: "We have one striker (Gilbert Mushangazhike) and so you will have to speak to him about why he's not scoring."
The bewildered look on his face when the gathered gallery erupted into spontaneous laughter suggested that he wasn't aware that he'd just said something quite funny.
But even his communication frustrations can hardly be used as an excuse as we've had coaches in the premiership who've been less comprehensible than Krol but never made it their business to infuriate the media.
Paul Dolezar, Augusto Palacios, Viktor Bondarenko, among others, come to mind. Dolezar, in particular, used to have dazed hacks scratching their heads as he happily butchered the Queen's language without a care in the world. But he told you the gibberish with a disarming smile on his face.
Now that Krol is finally winning matches and the pressure has eased somewhat, it would be in his interest to take it easy.
We wouldn't want to pop the vein that usually materialises on his forehead at the sight of a journalist, now would we?
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