As the media spotlight was placed firmly on The Amakhosi over the past week, with most of the talk about Chiefs in the media and at social gatherings revolving around the changing of the guard with former coach Ernst Middendorp and his assistant being replaced by a man who Chiefs fans know only too well from his days as head coach of The Amakhosi’s close rivals Orlando Pirates, where he came head to head with Chiefs during the 2004 – 2005 and 2005 – 2006 seasons.

The new Chiefs coach, Kosta Papic, slipped into the hot seat late on Monday evening without much fan fare, and was at the training ground early on Tuesday morning as he got down to the real business of shaping his new charges.

While most people's attention has been on Papic landing the top job at Naturena, it might have slipped past a number of fans that the new Chiefs coaches' first assignment will come this weekend when The Amakhosi host Bloemfontein Celtic in a PSL game at the ABSA Stadium in Durban.

Yes that’s right, Chiefs will be hosting Phunya Sele Sele in Durban on Saturday evening. Celtic first up will prove to be a real baptism of fire for Papic with the wily Serbian having come up against Celtic in the past and has the experience to come up with a game plan that will keep Celtic at bay.

Speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Papic sat next to his Bloemfontein Celtic counterpart Tony De Norgeba. Papic made it clear that although his aim was to win the game, he understood that his team would be ready for a tough outing.

As he explained “Whenever I have come up against Celtic, whether it was with Pirates or Maritzburg, the games were always tough, they are a good strong team who are vastly improved from last season.”

The new Chiefs coach also heaped praise on Celtic coach De Norgeba saying “Tony has done a good job with Celtic since taking over midway through last season, from a team who were fighting relegation he has turned them into a title contending team”.

Whereas the Chiefs coach has the comfort of being able to solely concentrate on Celtic, his counterpart will be having a double dosage of Soweto teams over the next few days as they face Orlando Pirates on Wednesday evening before heading to Kwa Zulu Natal to take on The Amakhosi.

“First we need to think about Pirates,” said De Norgeba and he continued on by saying, “Thereafter we will turn our attention more fully to Chiefs, but we do already have our thoughts fixed on Saturday’s encounter."

De Norgeba, when pressed to comment on Saturday’s game said “In my personal opinion we are in the unfortunate position of facing Chiefs at this point in time, they have a new coach and confidence in the team will be high and the players will be looking to impress the new coach and all that means is that we will be in for a real fight from Chiefs”.

The ABSA Stadium in Durban, the site of recent ABSA Cup and SAA Supa8 triumphs for Chiefs, will play host to Saturday’s match, which will kick off at 20h10.

Amakhosi team manager Bobby Motaung has promised the Chiefs fans in Kwa Zulu Natal an entertainment filled weekend. “We have a number of activities lined up for our fans who are in Durban and those who will be travelling down for the game, we have planned a road show around Durban on Friday where we hope to introduce our coach to the public.”

Added to that, Motaung says that Chiefs will be participating in a new social responsibility initiative in conjunction with the Kwa Zulu Natal department of transportation. “While we are in Durban we will be assisting the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of transport, in launching a new ‘Pedestrian Safety Campaign’ and we will be embarking on a number of visits with them to various places to make the public aware of this campaign.”

The Amakhosi will in all likelihood head down to Durban on Thursday and kaizerchiefs.com will be there to update you on the team news and their preparation for Saturday’s all-important PSL encounter with Celtic on Saturday.

Tickets for the game can be purchased through out the country at Computicket as well as Shoprite Checkers store, and are priced at R20 for adults tickets and R10 for juveniles.