It w as a bit unfair to let him go
On the current situation at Spurs
Things are not going well for Cape Town Spurs this season so far. It’s bad, it’s really bad, to tell you the honest truth. Out of the first 13 league matches, they have already lost 12. But like I said to some of their players when I spoke to them, things can only get better from here. All the people who are affiliated to the club must start thinking positive in order to turn things around. This is the poorest start to the season ever for the club and now they need to look forward to the rest of the season and start motivating themselves. Obviously, it’s not nice to be in the position they find themselves in, but it is what it is and you can’t change the past. In order to get promoted to the DStv Premiership, they went through the promotional play-offs and that will always have an impact on the following season. If two teams get promoted and two get automatically relegated, it gives the two promoted teams time to also reset and compete in the transfer market. But unfortunately, Spurs or any other team that came through the play-offs couldn’t even buy players because they were not sure whether they would get promoted or not. I was also part of the Chippa United team that went through the same thing and it’s not a nice feeling to still have to play once the season is over. It is definitely a disadvantage because you can’t reset and the second thing is, you can’t go out and look for players because by the time the play-offs are finished, most players have already been signed by other clubs. Other clubs won’t leave good players for too late. Spurs kept most of their players that helped them win promotion, even though I feel that they should have beefed up their squad. In my opinion, they should have gone to the transfer market and beefed up their squad. They kept everyone and only added Keagan Buchanan and few others who joined on loan, and that is not enough because if you have the spine of the team, you also need to add a few more quality into your team.
On losing the first fiv e matches
Spurs had last played in the DStv Premiership in 2018 and a lot of things have changed since then. People thought that Spurs would get promoted and beat TS Galaxy, in the first game, and other teams. But things are different now. There was even a statement released by the club where they expressed surprise at the current transfer market compared to five years ago. Players are earning more money now and the market is completely different. It’s not about players being overpriced, what you see now is the going rate of players. If you are not willing to pay the going rate, then you are not going to get quality, it’s as simple as that. Players’ salaries have increased, as well as the transfer fees. Teams from the lower divisions will always struggle because the DStv Premiership transfer market is completely different to (that of) teams down there. In the lower divisions, you get a lot of players for free and most teams don’t pay signing-on fees, but when you get to the DStv Premiership, it’s a different ball game. Spurs do have good players like Chumani Butsaka, but my question is: do they play him according to his strength? For me, that is another question. I watched the club a lot in the Motsepe Foundation Champion and I expected them to change things up in the DStv Premiership. The mindset (of the players) also needs to change. And then there is an issue of changing coaches because in my opinion, it was not fair on Shaun Bartlett (to get fired).
On w hy firing Bartlett w as a mistake
Shaun is a legend at this club and he helped them get promoted. They tried to win promotion for five years and no one could do it. How many coaches were there during that time? And Shaun came in and got them promoted. Obviously, the first 10 games after getting promoted were always going to be difficult and for him, it was worse because his hands were tied. That is why I’m saying there are a lot of things that count towards winning matches. It was a bit unfair to let him go. They should have at least given him time until December or January. After that, if things still don’t work out, then you sit down and say to him, “Okay, we tried, but you didn’t win” or whatever the case might be. But I don’t think it was fair to let him go because now you already have one coach gone. He got them promoted with a fairly young team. I think they probably had the youngest average age in the Motsepe Foundation Championship and still manage to win promotion. But I want to encourage players to have a positive attitude from now until the end the season. So, they must just go out there and get whatever good results they can get. I won’t be surprised if they get a couple of wins before the end of the year. Look at the win they got against Orlando Pirates, in that match they played a good game. It was a very open game and Pirates allowed Spurs to attack so that they could press them from their own half, but Spurs managed to beat that pressing game and were very clever, and they deserved to beat Pirates that day. There were two other games that they played the same way but unfortunately lost. But when Shaun was still their coach, in the first five games, they knew that things were going to be tough, but if they had given him at least until the January Africa Cup of Nations, buy some players, that would have been fair. But they pulled the trigger a little bit too early.
On w hat the future lies for the club
With 13 matches played so far this season, there is still a lot to play for in the remaining 17 matches. Look at Cape Town City, they had a rough start to the season and won six matches in a row, which put them on the top of the table. If Spurs get two wins in a row, they will be back. The league table is tight and there is not much of a difference between teams at the bottom and mid table – all you need is two wins to move up the table. Richards Bay FC will lose some matches and Royal AM will also struggle because they have been banned from signing players. That is Spurs’ advantage. Teams who don’t go to the transfer market to freshen up their squad, you can see them. If a team like Mamelodi Sundowns is winning everything and still want to strengthen their squad, that tells you about the importance of signing new players. Sundowns sign players for a reason, and that is to improve their current squad. That is why I’m saying the transfer market is very important. I’m not just talking about Sundowns because they operate in their own transfer market. From now onwards, the newly-appointed coach, Ernst Middendorp, needs to get a more consistent, competitive team on the pitch. Even if they don’t get results all the time, but to be competitive is very important. If it means he goes away and gets a point and plays for a win at home, that will be something. The league is very inconsistent at the moment, except for the top teams on the log. If you have already lost 12 matches, then they must just go out there and play because you have nothing to lose. When I joined Ajax Cape Town under Gordon Igesund, we were also fighting relegation in the first round of fixtures. At the time, the team was going through a transition phase – we had a lot of youngsters like Lunga Dlangudlangu. I’m not saying we were losing because of the players, but there were lots of things happening at the club. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to survive the drop. Gordon told John Comitis that we needed to go into the transfer market and we brought in a lot of experienced players. Gordon signed about eight new players and added Alfred Phiri, Josep Ngake and we managed to survive the drop by finishing in position 13. This Spurs team is also capable of beating the drop.