Newly appointed Al Ahli Jeddah coach Pitso Mosimane has explained what it would need for him to return to coach in the Premier Soccer League in future.
Mosimane, 58, and his technical team of Kabelo Rangoaga, Musi Matlaba and Kyle Solomon held a press conference organised by their representatives MT Sports on Thursday, where they discussed their move to Saudi Arabia at length.
After discussing why they opted to move out of Africa for the first time and what the mandate is At Ahli, who have been relegated to the first division in Saudi Arabia for the first time in the club’s history, Mosimane and his team opened the floor for questions from local media.
One of them was whether he move to Saudi Arabia has now closed the door for a potential return to the PSL in future.
“Yes, I’m still open for South African teams. Never say never, why not,” Mosimane, who signed a two-year deal with Al Ahli, told reporters.
“But the project must be good. It’s not about ‘come in coach and help us’. There must be a plan, there must be a vision, there must be time frames.
“If you ask Pep Guardiola ‘can you want the [English] Premiership with Norwich United, what do you think?’ It’s not easy. Pep, Thomas Tuchel and Ancelotti and all those guys…
“When you have a good team, when you have good football players, as an institution you have 40,000 to 50,000 bums on the seat, a big club, you have a big influence on the results.
“So we need the players, as Mourinho always tells you ‘if you want a good omelette you must have good eggs’. So you can’t just take a club because they can afford to pay you. It’s a project, what do you want, how do you see it, what do we have on the market for local league, what do we have on the market for CAF, whether it’s Confederations Cup or Champions League – what do we want?
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“Because it’s easy to come No.2 and go to Champions League and then what? I think you have seen many teams qualify for Champions League, even Confederations Cup – Black Leopards played Confed Cup and I got Mabunda from there, they kept going and going, but how far can you take this?
“What’s endurance and stability? Football has changed, what do you want? We used to have big names and big institutions, well supported but I think even England has told you that Arsenal is still coming back, Man United is still coming back. Milan just came back, how long have they been out of the circle?
“The rest of the world, Al Ahli Jeddah, where we are. Our local also, it’s not about taking about this coach out and bringing the next coach – you need an overall [approach]. You see what Arsenal have done, they even made sure they get younger players and there is no pressure on Arteta to win the league and all that. Barca has turned things around, they even loaned players to fill the stadium and you can see they are still coming back.
“So it is not about ‘this is a big team, come and coach, we can afford to pay you’. We must also look ourselves and you don’t want to be making career suicide decisions because maybe it’s a big team and they can afford to pay you. So it’s a project as we said.”
NOTE: There will be an extended feature from Mosimane’s press conference in next week’s iDiski Times news paper. It will cover topics such as Mosimane’s mandate and targets with Al Ahli, how Benni McCarthy inspired him, whether he will look to link up with former players, his opinion on Hugo Broos and much more. Watch out for it on Tuesday, 4 October.
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