Sobering view from Motsepe

It seemed no more than par for the course with South Africa following a worldwide current trend as Mamelodi Sundowns had amassed an 11-point lead in the Absa Premiership title race.

But with three recent defeats knocking the dominant stuffing out of the Brazilians, billionaire club president Patrice Motsepe has come out with the sobering warning and assessment that no fewer than seven or eight clubs are now in the running for the PSL championship.

Motsepe’s motive may well be designed as a warning to his less-than-inspiring players to rid themselves of any complacency and recent blasé approach and attitude in the club’s ranks, despite the team still holding a threepoint advantage in the league – with a complement of new signings also introduced in keeping with big-spending Sundowns’ approach when facing signs of a crisis.

In mathematical terms, however, Sundowns have surrendered their place alongside such overwhelming pacesetters as Bayern Munich who have a 13-point advantage in the German Bundesliga; Manchester City with a 12-point lead in the English Premier League; PSG with an 11-point advantage in France; Barcelona ahead by nine points in Spain’s La Liga and Celtic who have a dominant eight-point advantage in Scotland.

Motsepe says Sundowns’ faltering trend is mainly due to an improvement in PSL clubs generally. With the gauntlet thrown down, the Brazilians need to raise the bar to a higher level with their new acquisitions.

The views of the Sundowns chairman are, however, disputed by many who believe it is because of a decline in the Brazilians’ standard that they have “joined the pack” and are now capable of losing to any of the other 15 clubs in the Premiership.

And this viewpoint is backed up by the number of mundane encounters generally in which goals have been at a premium and clubs often appear satisfied with draws rather than striving for maximum points.