Muhsin jets in for rescue bid
Turkish coach is back in SA to try and save Ajax from relegation again and says local football cannot afford to lose the Cape Town-based club.
Mark Gleeson T he top flight of South African football can ill afford to lose a club of the size of Ajax Cape Town and its considerable junior structure, asserts Muhsin Ertugral, who sits on the bench tonight for the first time since arriving to take charge of the club again.
“In South African football, we have Kaizer Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns, these are the locomotives of the game but Ajax is also an important trademark. I think South Africa needs Ajax to be up among the best. Why? Because, if I’m not mistaken, it is one of the clubs that produces the most players in the country,” said the veteran coach, who is in his fourth spell at the club.
Ertugral has been parachuted in to try and save the team from the potential of relegation.
They play against Sundowns tonight at the Cape Town Stadium in a catch-up game, sitting in second-last place and two points above bottomplaced Bidvest Wits.
Ertugral has been in this position before. When he was appointed last time, some three seasons ago, it was also to save the club from the real potential of relegation.
He had just four games in which to do so, claiming eight points from 12, and says he can do it again.
“Hopefully we can get these young Ajax talents going and unearth new ones. Later on, we will look to play an attractive style of football but right now we need the points and sometimes you have to play ugly to get points. We need to be much more organised.
“We have a big squad and we need to develop as quickly as possible a playing pattern. I love to see harmony in the team and I can see I have to decode their brain on what to do when they have the ball and when they lose the ball.
“After losing the ball, they want to go backwards to protect the goal, but this is not the Ajax way. You don’t save your house inside your house, you save your house outside the house. These are elements we need to convince the players of,” Ertugral added.
“But yes, I think we can make, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken on the job. If you look at the individual players, one-byone, they have enormous potential.
They are skilful … good, positive players. But at the end of the day, we need harmony and that will take some time.”