Augusto Palacios
FOLLOWING the shock resignation of Orlando Pirates head coach Muhsin Ertugral after his team was humiliated 1-6 by SuperSport United in an Absa PSL fixture on Tuesday night, the club has confirmed that Augusto Palacios will take over as interim coach.
The club released the news in a statement on Twitter.
Palacios, who currently heads development at the club, is no stranger to coaching Pirates. He last coached the team in 2012 in a similar role.He also had a stint with the club in 1996 and coached the South African national team from 1992-1994.
Ertugral offered to resign on live television after the SuperSport United hammering. The result is the joint worst in the club’s history following Mamelodi Sundowns’ victory over the Buccaneers in a BP Top 8 encounter in 1990.
Pirates started the stronger of the two sides with a flurry of chances only for poor finishing and SuperSport keeper Ronwen Williams stopping the Sea Robbers from taking the lead.
However, it was Tendai Ndoro, who opened the scoring and gave the Soweto giants a first half lead over Stuart Baxter’s charges.
The second stanza could not have begun any better for United with Pirates’ defence falling asleep which led to an early goal by man-of-the-match Reneilwe Letsholonyane and a brace from Michael Boxall.
SuperSport deepened Pirates wounds with Bradley Grobler, Thuso Phala and Jeremy Brockie adding their names to the devastating score sheet.
Ertugral was visibly upset and, during his post-match interview with SuperSport, confirmed that he will hand in his resignation to club chairperson Irvin Khoza.
“I have no thoughts, after a result like that I am ashamed of the situation. For this badge, for this great club, I don’t have any words. I have never seen a disastrous 45 minutes like that since I have coached.
“I can only speak to my chairman tomorrow and put my resignation in because at the end of the day we are responsible for what has happened on the field. We don’t deserve to have that jersey of Orlando Pirates.” — Sport24.co.za