THEY SAID IT

“Two years ago I really had the biggest blow in my football career when Wits got sold. We were all in the bubble, we were in the hotel for six weeks, locked away and we were told we don’t have jobs. That was the biggest blow in my playing, coaching career and everything. So, it was really a downer and everyone was being sold off like meat and I was the last one who got a job. I took the job that I didn’t really want because I knew all the mine fields you are going to get to those types of jobs.” Gavin Hunt claims he did not want the Kaizer Chiefs job, which he took in 2020 but which bombed on him soon thereafter. “Coach Rhulani, I always tell him that ‘you’re always not happy’. He always wants more and more. Obviously he told me first before he told the media that he is not happy. I knew and I know he demands more and more from me. For me, as I’ve mentioned, is to work hard. When I do get the opportunity to just play and do well.” Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Bongani Zungu on the criticism he received from head coach Rhulani Mokwena. “I’ve never given up in my life but tonight I have to think of the team, as I have always done. So reason tells me to give my place to someone who can help our squad have a great World Cup. Thanks for all your messages of support.” Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema is out of the World Cup because of injury before he got to kick a ball. “The criticism is crazy after a small run of results considering how England have performed at the last two tournaments and he was at the forefront of that. That conversation is crazy. People ask me if I was upset that I didn’t go to the Euros and I say, ‘well, it was obviously the right decision because they got to the final’. So you have got to keep things in perspective. It’s difficult nowadays because everything is now, now, now but you’ve got to remember 2016 and where we are now.” England’s Eric Dier has branded supporter criticism of Gareth Southgate as ‘crazy talk’. “I have difficulties understanding the criticism. We have to invest in helping these people, in education and to give them a better future and more hope. We should all educate ourselves, many things are not perfect but reform and change takes time. This one-sided moral lesson is just hypocrisy.” FIFA president Gianni Infantino accused critics of World Cup host Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers of hypocrisy.