‘SuperSport duo should move on’
TEMBO: WASTE TO KEEP MNYAMANE, QALINGE BENCHED
The official word is not out yet from SuperSport United with regard to the future of Thabo Mnyamane and his namesake Thabo Qalinge. The duo, however, will not be part of Kaitano Tembo’s team next season and the United mentor said it would be better if they try their luck elsewhere than benching such quality players. “We need to start thinking forward and see where we want to go. Those are top players, you would rather have them playing rather than waste them on the bench. It gets frustrating because they want to be on the pitch but are getting older. The only way we can try and give them that opportunity is to maybe allow them to go somewhere else and play,” Tembo told Phakaaathi Plus.
Mnyamane has seen very little gametime under Tembo’s tenure as he has been nursing niggling injuries. He has been linked with a move to Stellenbosch FC and Tembo still has all the confidence in the 27-year-old.
“No-one can doubt Mnyamane’s quality. He is an intelligent player who has got goals in him. I think for the past three seasons he has not played much because of injuries and sometimes in football it might be because of the environment. We also tried to get him to full fitness but he has been very unlucky with the injuries and I think he is one player who has still got age on his side. If he can syay injury-free, I think he can still play,” said Tembo.
On Qalinge, who played just three games since joining as a free agent after he was dumped by Orlando Pirates, Tembo says the competition was too tight for Qalinge to break into the team.
“He came in where he had to play second fiddle to players like Aubrey Modiba and there is (also) Bradley Grobler and Evans Rusike who were all doing well. He never really got many opportunities to play due to the other players who were doing well in that position.
“He is still a very good player and I know that players do get better due to competition and I think he has provided good competition to the players who have been playing because he has been pushing and wanting to play,” said Tembo.