Soccer Laduma

Doc answers your questions…

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Please don’t forget to send your questions to editor@ soccerladu­ma.co.za for now, until further notice.

Gavin Ryan from Emalahleni wants to know if it is good for South African football to be dominated by Mamelodi Sundowns. Look, I think it is for everyone to see what is happening. It has been six years of Sundowns dominance and clearly they are doing something that other teams are not doing. Sundowns’ dominance didn’t fall from the sky, they decided to turn things around after playing second fiddle to other teams for a long time. They were clearly tired of being number three behind Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates and sat down to scrutinize things and plan for the future. It is no fluke what has happened since then and their dominance is a result of long-term planning.

You will remember that their main focus is to conquer not just the DStv Premiershi­p but the whole continent of Africa! They already have a star above their badge to prove that they are on the right track. When you look at their player acquisitio­n and coaching staff, which includes every technical member that is part of the whole team, and these people have satellite academies and scouts all over the place. They even have scouts that travel the world to scout players, and which other team does that? How many teams have foreign players from South America? Sundowns have been doing this for years now and they don’t just wait for African players to avail themselves and say they want to play in the country. No, they go out there in search of the best talent and their scouting system is proper. They are the best team in the country because of their results and that’s not just my opinion but a fact.

Doctor Mthombeni says after watching Chiefs against Sundowns at FNB Stadium recently, he’s convinced that Chiefs is not for everyone. If you can go back to after Chiefs was eliminated by AmaZulu FC in the MTN8, you will remember my utterances, and a lot of individual­s were not comfortabl­e with them. I said what I said not with an intention to bully or shame anyone. I just wanted to tell what makes an elite player at Chiefs and what kind of a player that can play for Chiefs. I said it long time ago that not every player, irrespecti­ve of where they played or what they’ve achieved, can play for that team. I don’t want to dwell on this, but your comment doesn’t surprise me, at all.

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