Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro admits the club’s deadline day business has improved his squad and described Kermit Erasmus as an ‘interesting player’.
Pirates had quite an eventful deadline day with the arrivals of playmaker Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo, striker Kermit Erasmus and goalkeeper Sipho Chaine putting pen to paper.
With the Buccaneers already boasting a squad that many have tipped capable of challenging Mamelodi Sundowns for honours, the Spaniard conceded he’s happy with the arrivals based on what he’s seen in training.
“I’m happy with the new recruitments, we have a group of players who have been doing very well, and now we have three more who come in with the intentions to help us do better and to be part of a good collective [group],” Riveiro said on Wednesday afternoon,
“We have new tools to try and continue winning games and the adaptation has been so far so good, so they will be available, let’s see… it’s Wednesday, we play Saturday so we won’t know who will be available [then] or not – it’s still a long way to go but we’re happy to have them in the group and performing already.”
With Erasmus returning to the club he represented between 2013 and 2016 after terminating his contract with the club Pirates face in the MTN8 semi-finals, much fanfare surrounds the player.
He scored 21 goals and registered 14 assists in 80 games during his first stint before earning a move to Ligue 1 side Rennes and there could be an immediate second debut for the experienced forward.
“I found an experienced player, smart and professional because he’s in a good fitness level so that shows me he was taking care of himself so that [shows] he’s ready to perform, ready to train,” Riveiro said.
“It takes time, of course, he just arrived a few days ago, a few experiences so far with the team, the group, the methods, so we need to be patient. We can’t think about the past, like when we spoke about results [against Sundowns].
“We can’t think about what he did, we have to think about what he can do for us now, be patient and understand that he just had three or four training in our structure. Hopefully, he can help us very soon, we need everyone because there are five league games in October, two semi-finals, it’s exciting games so we’ll need all of them.
“Kermit’s experience in the league and overseas it’s going to be important for us and I can see an interesting player in there for sure.”
