Familiar teams in drop battle
AWOL players, new coaches are prime factors
Polokwane City
Rise and Shine outdid themselves last season with a sixth place finish, but will find it hard to replicate their form. With limited resources and a squad that is not big enough to allow for rotation, City will likely run out of gas.
Bloemfontein Celtic
Phunya Sele Sele have attended to their biggest problem, which was failing to score goals. So the signing of Ndumiso Mabena, who always managed to get goals for Platinum Stars and Victor Letsoalo, whose goals saved Baroka in the PSL promotion playoffs, means Celtic have some firepower. They can also call on Roggert Nyundu. They finished 12th last season, but a top eight target is possible. The players also seem to like the new coach, Veselin Jelusic.
Ajax Cape Town
Ajax are blessed with youthful exuberance, but lack sage players. Their previous season was disappointing, spending most of it in the bottom half. The actions of Rivaldo Coetzee, who went AWOL trying to force a transfer, could have destabilised the team’s preparations.
Golden Arrows
They sneaked into the top eight on the last day last season bearing in mind that coach Clinton Larsen had promoted quite a few young players. Abafana Bes’thende actually achieved more than expected. The likes of Nduduzo Sibiya impressed and it will be interesting to see how they fare. A top eight finish is a realistic target.
Relegation candidates
Baroka
Baroka retained their right to play in the top flight via the playoffs. The coaching merry-go-round impacted them negatively as they stumbled through matches. With their saving grace having been the playoffs, they could go down automatically this time.
AmaZulu
Usuthu have made some questionable signings and moreover, they parted ways with coach Joey Antipas just over a week before their first match.
New mentor Cavin Johnson could be the right man, but you can’t help but wonder if he can get the best out of players like Boalefa Pule and Michael Morton, both on loan from SuperSport United, who weren’t regulars at their former club.
Platinum Stars
Dikwena have a new coach in Peter Butler after they did not extend Cavin Johnson’s contract. It is a huge gamble to let go of a coach who in the past had steered them to a second place league finish and who promoted most of the young players they have in their squad. Stars have a dismembered squad and Butler’s mettle as a tactician has been questioned in the past.
Free State Stars
Last season was a big struggle for Ea Lla Koto and it could be the same this time. They’ve lost goalkeeper Thela Ngobeni who’s back at Sundowns after a loan spell. Ngobeni was one of Stars’ most important players. Winger Thokozani Sekotlong is also gone and if you consider he scored eight goals for them, Stars may live to regret releasing him. They believe they have made some good signings with Mumuni Abubakar from Black Leopards and Sello Jaftha rejoining from Pirates. Let’s wait and see.