Despite losing players such as Fagrie Lakay and Surprise Ralani in the January transfer window, Cape Town City are unbeaten in 2022 and coach Eric Tinkler has now explained the phenomenon.
City lost their two top goal scorers Surprise Ralani, who moved to the DStv Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns, and Fagrie Lakay, who joined Egyptian side Pyramids FC.
Tinkler’s side went out to get some youngsters that they were hoping would carry the team into the top eight and their gamble seems to have paid off because since January City hasn’t lost a single league game, out of the 10 they’ve played. The Citizens have managed to win six and drawn four.
“First and foremost we were smart in terms of the players that we brought in and sometimes it takes a little bit of time for those players to settle in but I think they settled in very very quickly,” Tinkler told the media.
“Young players, look at Ambina, 20 years old and he plays the way he plays, he made a few mistakes this evening on the ball but defensively strong, solid, wins a lot of interceptions and on the ball, he knows how to play in tight spaces, so I thought he’s been a massive inclusion.
“I think alternately the intensity that I demand in training I think came from those changes if I look at the first half of the season versus the second half of the season our training intensity got better, and if it’s the type of brand of football that we wanna play, you have to have that in training, you can’t just expect to switch it on and off on match day and I don’t feel that we had that in the first half of the season.
“I felt that we needed to freshen up the team. The chairman felt the same ,so we made those choices obviously.”
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The 51-year-old also congratulated Ralani for winning his first league title after Sundowns were crowned champions with four games remaining and went on to explain why they let Ralani and other regular players such as Abbubaker Mobara, Abdul Ajagun, Lakay, and Edmilson Dove leave.
“Surprise Ralani had an opportunity of a life time we didn’t wanna deny him that opportunity congratulations to him, he’s now a champion he’s won his first league so we congratulate him,” Tinkler continued.
“Fagrie, the opportunity to go play at Pyramids FC and the type of money he’s making there maybe [Mamelodi] Sundowns can match that, Then Ajagun same thing opportunity of the lifetime go play CAF Champions League also huge money that he will gain, we’ve always been a club that doesn’t wanna stand in the way for players bettering their lives then Mobara was a similar scenario,
“Mobara needed to go somewhere where he will get more game time because under us there was no guarantee that he would have that, Edmilson similarly so we looked all those but we knew that it’s one thing moving these players out it’s another thing bringing same quality or better.
“Like I said our scouting was very very good and it wasn’t just done in January window already in preseason we started that scouting and the important thing that we made was insuring that those players first and foremost come and train with us so we could also learn the personalities like I said for me training in intensity is very very important and they brought that with them. Since then we’ve been on the up exactly were we wanna be.”
City have climbed into third spot on the log, where they now sit just one point behind Royal AM in second place with four games to go.
