Cape Town Spurs head coach Ernst Middendorp admitted that some players within the club aren’t ready for topflight football after their recent 3-0 loss against DStv Premiership defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
The Urban Warriors suffered their 11th league defeat and their third under Middendorp. The struggling Spurs managed to only beat Orlando Pirates this season, in a 2-1 win at DHL Stadium a month ago.
Middendorp who is known of giving youngsters an opportunity to showcase their talent stated that the club have immense talent that needs to be guided. He also doesn’t believe that Spurs is dominated by old players.
“I don’t think so if you’re looking into it, Asanele (Velebayi), Chumani (Butsaka), Morne Nel. These are not old legs. Of course, we have three, four players into it. But as you said, I think the secret is always very liberal.
“(Lebohang) Maboe on the other side, Thapelo Morena on the other side, Rushine De Reuck on the other side, I brought them in as young players at Maritzburg United and Bloemfontein Celtic.
“I can continue, we can take the Pirates team, we can take a number of other teams, and (Sphesihle) Ndlovu at Supersport United and so on, but you have to prepare them adequately and prepare, it doesn’t mean that you are not able to identify that they have talent, talent is one parameter.
“The professionalism starts with how strong I’m prepared to work on my physical and there were a lot of moments today where it went against one and holding over source that means you have talent, talent is not the question. It’s not an issue.
“There’s a number of players in the club. There’s a lot of talent, but definitely it was a certain challenge of being able to have some real physical power to be successful to stop a player who is driving through the midfield if it is Maboe, if it is (Bongani) Zungu, if it is (Sipho) Mbule, just really you need power, you need the individual.
“It’s not that you good in ball possession, you stop a player and then in this moment, of course make something out of it yourself. A number of players are not really prepared for the PSL in the moment, we have to be honest.”