DOWN MEMORY LANE | 'Yeye' details title-winning seasons under Baxter at Chiefs

Spending eight seasons at Kaizer Chiefs, one of South Africa's biggest football clubs, and winning nine trophies during his prime years of playing the beautiful game, Reneilwe "Yeye" Letsholonyane is as rare as they come.

The playmaker joined Amakhosi in 2008 at 26-years-old and became a pivotal part of the club's midfield, amassing nearly 200 appearances in the famous yellow and black jersey before departing to SuperSport United in 2016, where he added two more pieces of silverware to his personal cabinet.

Now at 37 and still knocking the ball around for Absa Premiership outfit Highlands Park, the former Bafana Bafana passing maestro takes us down memory lane during his time at Amakhosi playing under Stuart Baxter between 2012 and 2015. 

Scotsman Baxter inked a three deal with the Soweto giants in what would become a roller coaster tenure for the coach and players.

The Glamour Boys had not celebrated a league triumph since the 2004/5 season under the great Ted Dumitru and Platinum Stars and arch-rivals Orlando Pirates were hoping to keep that record intact until the very last minute of the 2012/13 campaign.

"It was an intense and tough season for us that time, but we managed to collect more points earlier in the season," Letsholonyane tells Sport24.

"Later in the season, when things got a bit difficult, we could afford to lose some games because of the points that we got earlier on in the campaign.

"When things got tougher, we had players with big characters who could withstand the heat at that time."

Letsholonyane refuses to offer some of the "big characters'" names as he preferred to highlight that it was a team effort, including that of the coaching staff.

"It was also the whole team that played a very huge role," he continued.

"We needed everyone to come to the party so that we could achieve what we wanted to achieve which was winning the league. So, all the players and the technical team came to the party at the right time."

The Buccaneers ended the season in third place (52 points) with Dikwena shockingly finishing as runners-up (56 points) nearly edging Amakhosi to the crown.

However, Chiefs ended an eight-year league drought on the final matchday to clinch the title with 57 points.

"I think our first game we played an MTN8 match and we lost 4-1 to Mamelodi Sundowns. Our next game we played AmaZulu and we won 6-1," Letsholonyane recalls.

"We went on to play so many games without any losses. Our confidence grew. We knew that we could win the league, but our coach kept telling us to take each game at a time. He did not want us to get ahead of ourselves and lose focus."

Letsholonyane says that during Baxter's first year, he noticed that the former Bafana Bafana coach was a superb man-manager, which brought out the best in the players.

"One of the things we as players learned from him is that he mastered the art of building a team,” said Letsholonyane.

"He knew how to manage the players; I think that was one of the things that made us perform the way we did… he had a good skill of man-management."

The following campaign did not go as planned as Chiefs failed to retain the title, relinquishing their credentials to Sundowns on the last day of the season.

"The same thing happened in the previous season (2012/13) we got points early on," he said of the heart-wrenching defeat of seeing Sundowns winning the title.

"I think around the last six games we dropped points as well. We lost confidence in ourselves and we were not sure that we were going to win the league when we lost against Mamelodi Sundowns at FNB (stadium).

"They scored their winning goal in the last two minutes if I'm not mistaken. After that, it was all panic, we did not play in the areas that we were supposed to be playing and we ended up losing the game."

This all happened in under three months as Sundowns were trailing Chiefs by 10 points at the start of February during the 2013/14 campaign.

However, the Brazilians crawled their way back with a fighting chance of edging out Amakhosi to the Absa Premiership title.

On the final matchday, Masandawana shocked the football fraternity and claimed the biggest domestic prize in South African football with 65 points while Chiefs mustered up 63 points, settling for a disappointing second position.

The next season - 2014/15 - Baxter's last year at the club before his contract expires, was to be phenomenal as Chiefs looked to even the score.

"It wasn't about revenge," Letsholonyane says.

"We learned from the past two seasons (under Baxter) and we were better players because of that.

"We knew how it felt to lose the league in the last few games, we knew better on what to do in certain situations as well as the pressure of winning the trophy when we won it the first time and the pressure of losing it in the last few games as well.

"So, we had the experience. Most of the challenges that we encountered, or we will encounter during the season… we just wanted to win our trophy back."

And the Glamour Boys did exactly that.

At the end of the 2014/15 season, Sundowns had 57 points – trailing Amakhosi by a staggering 12 points as the Soweto giants surged to the Absa Premiership title with 69 points from 21 wins, 6 draws, and 3 defeats.

Baxter's final season was an impressive defensive display as Chiefs only conceded 14 goals and netted 41 goals in all 30 Premiership matches.

"We had good players, top international players. At some point during the FIFA break, there would only be 15 players at training and the coach would get players from the club’s development to create numbers during sessions," Letsholonyane continued.

"So, we had players from all levels from under-20 to under-23 to the senior players as well as the experience we were getting from playing for the national team."

Fast forward back to 2020, Chiefs are once again at the summit of the log table (48 points from 22 games) with the Brazilians trailing the Soweto giants by four points (44 points from 21 games) with one game in hand.

However, the 2019/20 season has been placed on pause since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Premier Soccer League (PSL) are awaiting government's call to resume play.

In Europe, the Bundesliga has continued with La Liga, the Premier League, and Serie A set to complete the current campaign before the end of July following Thursday's announcement.

Meanwhile, in France, Ligue 1 opted to cancel the season and controversially awarding the league title to Paris-Saint Germain on the points-per-game rule.

Despite it being his former club holding first place in South Africa's top-flight, Letsholonyane hopes the PSL does not resort to the same measures in which the Ligue 1 title was decided.

"For me, I think they should just cancel the season and find a way for teams to be promoted or relegated," said Letsholonyane.

"I don’t think anyone should be given the trophy, that’s my opinion. The season is not yet done. There are two or three teams behind (Kaizer Chiefs) that have a chance (to win the title).

"For me, if there was a respectable gap behind the number one (team on the log), I would definitely say 'let the team be given the trophy' but with how things are I just can’t see how."