Former Kaizer Chiefs coach Khalil Ben Youssef has set the cat among the pigeons with comments that will certainly not be well received by the club’s multitude of supporters.

After finishing third in the 2025/26 Betway Premiership season, Chiefs fans would have hoped the team could be ready to challenge for the League title next season.

Ben Youssef, however, has some bad news for all those associated with Amakhosi. He says the current squad is only good enough to challenge for the top four, implying that they are not ready to win the League.

“The problem with Kaizer Chiefs is between being realistic and ambitious,” Ben Youssef said on Metro FM’s Sports Night Amplified with Andile Ncube.

“We have the ambition to win everything, but we need to also be realistic. The squad that Kaizer Chiefs had during this season and last season, the maximum they can reach is the top four,” he claimed.

“If you compare the quality between Sundowns and Orlando (Pirates), the gap is huge because you will work and try to improve players, but there’s individual quality. It’s either you have it, or you don’t have it.

“I mean, when Sundowns had problems, and they needed a striker, they put money and immediately brought (Bryan) León, and after he played against Pirates, he scored two goals. And the best players in the PSL, you will find them at Orlando Pirates, and if you see now in the Bafana Bafana squad, it’s 30% and 40% Pirates and Sundowns; the other 30% is other teams.”

Ben Youssef concluded, “As Kaizer Chiefs, we only have one player (Bradley Cross) at Bafana sitting on the bench; he doesn’t play. I said to them (Chiefs management), the day you have five or six players in Bafana playing, starting games, know that you are ready to compete for trophies.”

Chiefs have only won one trophy over the past decade, which was the Nedbank Cup last year.

Ben Youssef, meanwhile, will come up against Chiefs next season as he has joined Durban City as head coach, making for an interesting battle.