Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has sent a hands off warning to Premier Soccer League clubs who are interested in the club’s upcoming and star players.
A lot of players from Stellies have been linked with other clubs before the upcoming transfer window.
At the beginning of the season, the Cape Winelands-side lost Ashley Du Preez and Zitha Kwinika to Kaizer Chiefs, while six months later experienced defender and captain Mogamad De Goede to Maritzburg United.
The departures did affect Stellies, who struggled somewhat in the first half of the 2022/23, but Barker’s men have turned their form around, with the arrival of Iqraam Rayners helping the club to win six of the seven games after the January window.
With transfer rumours again swirling around the club on the regular, Barker has now insisted that they are not willing to start over in the season of 2023/24, and will only blink if a good offer from Europe comes.
“It’s been made clear that we must do everything to keep our best players, it wouldn’t make sense for us to go into a new cycle,” Barker said on Wednesday, when asked whether they’ll again lose players of the caliber of Du Preez and Kwinika in the upcoming window.
“At the end of last season we basically started a new cycle with a lot of young players and a lot of incomings [and] to now sort of break that.
“So the next sort of season or the season beyond we want to keep the team together and we want to achieve things as a team.
“I think with the young players getting better over the next year or two, and retaining [them] and maybe here and there adding a player, it will allow the team to continue to achieve it sort of objective.
“So the message is that we are not here to lose our best players. May be on the odd occasion, you get an offer, we’re not going to stand in the way when a European team comes in for one of our players and he’s got an opportunity to play at a higher level, we’re not that club that will say no.
“But we’re not going to just let go locally if they can continue to be successful, and achieve things with us.”
Stellenbosch turn their attention to the Nedbank Cup quarter-final, where they will host defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns at Athlone Stadium on Saturday.
