You can see the impact he’s had

David Notoane – Sundowns’ MultiChoice Diski Challenge coach

“First and foremost, you look at the journey Sundowns has been through before coach Pitso came and I think the record speaks for itself. After coach Pitso came in, over the last seven years, you can see the impact that he’s had. You ask yourself if the aspirations of the club have been met and realised? I think the stats speak for themselves. Given now that the club is on its drive for a second star (Champions League title) and a 10th league championship, I felt that the risk of losing Pitso would not have been good. If that had happened for whatever reason, you ask yourself where the club would go. Would it continue on its upward trajectory or was it now going to fly down? And history will start to tell you a story. You have to look in the country, or perhaps the continent even, given the amount of work and success coach Pitso has achieved, how many coaches out there could come in and continue with his work? My little common sense and logic says probably very few. I think on that basis, it became very important for Sundowns to hold onto coach Pitso, so that the trajectory the club is on, which is an upward one, can continue. It was a very good decision by the board and president of the club to give him a new contract, so that he can continue to elevate Sundowns towards dominance on the continent. For the academy, it’s also very important, if you look at the achievement in terms of the players that have come through to the first team and the amount of work we have done over the years to make sure we connect the first team’s outlook and playing (style) with the academy. The success is there, because we’ve seen a shift in the number of players coming through. That has been a steady process and it has started to yield results. The development which has happened can also help to fast-track more players who are coming through. Hopefully in these four years we will one day be able to see perhaps 80% of players coming out of the academy in the starting line-up and going on to conquer. I know it’s his dream and it’s also our dream. It will then justify the investment, in terms of the academy. That’s an ideal situation, but we know it’s difficult. Clubs like Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid all have academies, but they still go out and buy because of the demand for success by the supporters, by the board, the sponsors and everyone. But it’s something that we hope that, in the next four years, can be achieved, to see more players from the academy in the first team, who are ready, of course, to handle the demands of Mamelodi Sundowns.”