‘Bucs need time to find mojo’

Former Bafana Bafana midfielder Lebohang “Cheeseboy” Mokoena says it will take “a bit of time” for Orlando Pirates to reproduce the bevy of exceptionally talented youth products that the club churned out in the early 2000s.

At the turn of the century, Pirates promoted academy graduates such as Mokoena‚ Benedict “Tso” Vilakazi‚ Gift “Continental” Leremi‚ Joseph “Duku-Duku” Makhanya and Kelebogile Mabe, who went on to become household names.

Mokoena played with other young players including Mbulelo “OJ” Mabizela‚ Steve “Chippa” Lekoelea‚ Daniel “Sailor” Tshabalala‚ Lucas Thwala‚ Lesley “Slow Poison” Manyathela‚ Phumudzo “Bold and Beautiful” Manenzhe‚ Thabang Stemmer‚ Edward Malinga‚ Tonic Chabalala and Solly Mathe.

“I will always remember those days where we took football to another level and drove supporters crazy‚” Mokoena said.

He was promoted to the first team during the 2002-2003 season and won the league title under coach Roy Barreto with Mabizela as captain.

“It’s gonna take a bit of time for Pirates to produce quality youth players like they did with us,” Mokoena said.

“As much as we have good youngsters that come from the Pirates academy at the moment and some are playing in the MDC‚ they don’t spend years there.

“There is no philosophy in terms of how the whole development is structured.

“It was easy for us because we looked up to players like Thabang Lebese‚ Joseph Ngake John Moeti‚ Helman Mkhalele and Brandon Silent.

“When we went to the academy‚ we were prepared to replace them,” he said.

Mokoena said he had played some of his best football under coaches Augusto Palacios and Kosta Papic.

“We played an unbelievable brand of football‚ fans created that Happy People thing and Ellis Park was the slaughter house.

“That system was driven by development players [and] most of us were developed from the age of 12 years by the team,” he said.