Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has posed a question to Gavin Hunt after suggestions their spending power has weakened the league.
Last week ahead of their MTN8 quarter-final Hunt said he felt the number of money Sundowns have spent in the market is ‘to the detriment of the football in South Africa’ and ‘weakened’ the football while stating Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates won’t be able to compete with them.
Sundowns went on to win 2-0 with new signings Abubeker Nassir and Marcelo Allende coming off the bench to send them to the semi-finals, where they will face Orlando Pirates.
And ahead of meeting SuperSport again on Friday, this time in the DStv Premiership, Mngqithi responded to claims made by Hunt saying money doesn’t equate to success but the structures and strength of technical teams can yield results too.
“I don’t think it’s criticism hey,” he said ahead at Chloorkop on Wednesday. “But I would have the same question, or same talk when he was at Wits and Wits was signing so many players and he won the league.
“Were they killing the league? Because the truth of the matter, if you have to check the season Wits won the league, Gavin signed a lot of quality players and they did very well. And that for me was very positive.
“To say Sundowns must walk and win every match because they are signing quality players, I think this thing has been happening all the years. Sundowns have been signing quality players throughout the years, even before I was here, even before the President was at this club, they signed top players.
“They did that and I don’t think it’s always about the amount of money you can splash to build a team because there are teams that are doing a lot of good work. And they will become a very big force in South African football very soon by focusing on what works for them.”
Mngqithi went on to state that teams like Stellenbosch are the prime example of what can be done without spending big, citing their talent identification and success in youth development as they finished fourth last season and look to be reaching another level under Steve Barker in the 2022/23 campaign.
“The truth of the matter is – if you can improve your coaching in your club, if you can improve your coaching and scouting, you can still have a lot of top players that can challenge any team in the league,” he added.
“If I can give you a team that maybe you can make with players that are not as expensive from the PSL, you can build a very strong team by having a very good eye to look at exactly what you want for your team.
“A lot of teams are doing exceptionally well in that space, look at Stellenbosch, they haven’t signed any big-name players but those players very soon will be wanted by all the big clubs in the country, because they are good.
“Their youth programs are yielding the results, no wonder they are winning the DDC, no wonder they have promoted so many youngsters and already they have lost some of their top players that were known by nobody [before].
“The du Preez’, the Kwinika’s, in as much as he had travelled a little bit but they are able to replace with the right players. They brought [Sihle] Nduli from TS Galaxy, [Nhalala] Mgaga from Baroka and those are very good players that can really influence their team.”
Masandawana face off against their cross-town rivals on Friday evening at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium (19h30).
