SEKHUKHUNE UNITED’S POGISO MAHLANGU

Pogiso, thanks for your time and agreeing to make us laugh this week. It’s not always an easy thing to do, but we know you have it within you, ha, ha, ha…

Yeah, I’ve got a few stories to share with you.

Ah! See? Take it away then.

The first one happened during my time at Pretoria Callies down in the National First Division (now called Motsepe Foundation Championship). At the time, we were coached by Sammy Troughton, and I don’t need to tell you that he was quite a character, as this is a well-known fact. This one time, we were playing a friendly match against SuperSport United, and we had (Edwin) Sitayitayi in our team. He played very well in that game and, a couple of days later while we were at training, coach Troughton came to us. We had a prayer and then a small meeting followed. Then the coach was like, “Sitayitayi, you did well the other day and the SuperSport coach was busy asking me about you.” You could see that Sitayitayi was excited that a move might happen. But just as he was getting his hopes up, coach Troughton said, “Yeah, they were telling me that they were looking for a bus driver.”

Eish! That must have bruised Sitayitayi’s ego so much.

Yho! You could just see the disappointment on his face, ha, ha, ha. I could not stop laughing for a couple of days. Whenever I saw him, I would laugh. It was a very funny story. Well, it was funny to us, but it definitely was not funny to him.

What was his reaction?

He did not say anything, but you could see the disappointment on his face. The coach was insensitive, ha, ha, ha. And you know that Irish accent of his makes things worse, ha, ha, ha. Coach Sammy was a funny coach. He used to make jokes all the time.

So, it Sitayitayi’s turn that day of a cruel Sammy

was to be on the end Troughton barb.

Yeah, Sitayitayi had been with the team for quite some time. He was the longest-serving player and they actually wanted t oretirehimatthetime. He went on to be an assistant coach at Callies the followknew ing season. He that they wanted to retire him, so when he heard that SuperSport were asking about him, he felt that something good was coming. Only to find out that they thought he could make a good bus driver for them, according to coach Sammy. We still talk about it with my former teammates whenever we come across each other.

Surely, it’s somenever thing you’ll want to remind him of when you guys bump into each other. But let’s move on because we’re getti ngt he feeling there are some more Troughton gems in store. There was this one time when we had a team talk. It was the night before a game. If I remember well, we were playing in Durban. During his team talk, he wanted to read something on his phone. Unfortunately, he dropped a box of cigarettes. He could not pick them up. He just looked at us in the eyes to see who saw the cigarettes. You know that face when someone looks guilty?

Ha, ha, There was this other guy in the team, his nickname was “Sugar”. So, Troughton was like, “Sugar, son, I know you smoke. Do you want one?” Then everyone started laughing.

exactly! He was deflecting the attention away from himself. Good one…

Yes, ha, ha, ha. So, he was trying to take out hi sp hone and th ent he box fell. It was so awkward after that. We knew that he was someone who smoked, but he never did it in front of us. So, he tried to ignore the whole situation and the team talk did not continue after that. He came up with some stories from his time at Arcadia Shepherds and how good he was back then. We spent over two hours listening to him, ha, ha, ha. It was nice because half of the time we were just laughing. He is the funniest coach I have ever worked with.

Stories from Arcadia Shepherds? Ag, just smoke and mirrors.

There was a time when I was playing for Vasco da Gama and there was a very strange thing that I came across. It’s something that shook me forever. Before the warm-up, the coach said, “Everyone who smokes, you can go have your smoke and be back in five minutes.”

You lie!

For real. I had never come across something like that in my life and I still haven’t. The smokers go smoke and then they come back, and we prepare for the game.

Wow, that’s a first. Hopefully it was not some really strong stuff.

The one story I can remember last season from Sekhukhune United is when we were going to play the (Nedbank Cup) final. The day before the match, we went to training. We got onto the bus and went to the stadium. As we got to the stadium, Victor

Letsoalo realised that he had brought an empty bag. He left his boots at the hotel, ha, ha, ha. Ahead of the final! Can you imagine? He checked his bag to really see if he had left his boots and he only found his room card. Who does not feel that they are carrying an empty bag?

Good question.

I found that very funny because how can you carry an empty bag? So, it was one of the funny moments I can think of from my time here at Sekhukhune.

What did he end up doing?

He made a plan and got boots. I am not sure whose boots he used. Funny enough, in the final, he used the same boots that he trained with the previous day. I don’t know who he got those boots from, but he used them in the final.

Ha, ha, ha, it’s hilarious when you think of the fact that he conceded that bizarre penalty against Orlando Pirates in that final. It just wasn’t his day hey. Thank you so much for your time, Pogiso. Your stories were quite unique.

Ha, ha, ha. Thank you so much for the opportunity.