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By Tshepo Ntsoelengoe

Football Journalist


Richards Bay appoint Tembo as new head coach

Tembo’s move to Richards Bay comes after the club decided to part ways with coach Vasili Manousakis.


Richards Bay FC became the latest DStv Premiership side to announce changes to the technical team, with the club confirming the appointment of Kaitano Tembo as their new head coach.

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The Natal Rich Boys made an announcement of Tembo as their new coach on Thursday night.

“Richards Bay Football Club would like to confirm the appointment of Kaitano Tembo as the new head coach,” read a statement from the club.

“Kaitano Tembo is a familiar face to South African football. He has been in the DStv Premiership with the likes of SuperSport United Football Club and Sekhukhune United Football Club respectively.”

Tembo’s move to Richards Bay comes after the club decided to part ways with coach Vasili Manousakis this past month.

Manousakis left the KwaZulu-Natal outfit along with his technical team Pitso Dladla who was his assistant, as well as Ronnie Gabriel.

The trio were let go after a disappointing end to the season. Richards Bay had a very promising start to the campaign, with the club maintaining a top three position on the league standings in the first half of the season in their first stint in the top flight after gaining promotion from the Motsepe Foundation Championship.

However, things changed in the second half of the season, and they ended up fighting for survival.

They eventually escaped relegation and finished the campaign in 13th place on the table with 33 points, just four points separating them with relegated outfit Marumo Gallants.

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Tembo joins Richards Bay with his last stint as a coach having been at Babina Noko, where he didn’t really last long at the club.

He left Sekhukhune just after 12 games in charge of the club, and the club decided to axe him following some poor results during that period.

Tembo will be looking to get things right at the Rich Boys, an ambitious team with a lot of youngsters in their squad.