SuperSport on cruise mode to sign new players

SUPERSPORT United have been relatively quiet in the transfer market. It is the kind of silence that demands to be heard considering a tricky new season is fast approaching with the side needing to reinforce if they are to further their ambitions.

It is fair to say the first team dressing room of Matsatsantsa has been rocked over the last 12 months, ‘losing’ their most prized assets to their mighty neighbours in Mamelodi Sundowns.

The Pretoria club have cashed in on the talents of Teboho Mokoena, Sipho Mbule and with captain Ronwen Williams’ deal imminent, it appears that record is set to continue.

A period like this has been long in waiting for a club that possesses arguably the best academy in the country. Although avoided in conversation by their most faithful supporters, the club have had a huge influx of youth into their DStv Premiership squad, an indication of the club’s future intentions.

The club’s CEO Stan Matthews is known to be a man who never shies away from a good deal and that has been evident for numerous years.

Three-time league winners Matsatsantsa have adopted a model often associated with less ambitious clubs in the past – a model founded upon the receiving of large transfer sums of money, sell and reinvest, sell and reinvest, which, as it happens, could be precisely the story of this 12-month period at the club.

SuperSport probably weren’t expecting to lose three of their best players in such a short space of time but interim coach Andre Arendse’s utterances of possible new acquisitions at the end of last season are evidence that the club felt it wasn’t an impossible occurrence.

With Mbule gone and talks with Sundowns ongoing, the conversations within the club’s recruitment group and the strategies to be implemented before the start of the season have switched from mourning the loss of valuable assets to ‘what to do with the money’.

Arendse revealed that the club would prioritise midfield as a matter of high importance. The oldest player in the club’s midfield is 24-year-old Jamie Webber, who has taken the baton from the departed Mokoena alongside 20-year-old Jesse Donn.

An injection of experience and knowhow will add further gloss and quality in the SuperSport ranks. Clubs like Kaizer Chiefs, AmaZulu and Maritzburg United underwent huge transformations in the past month, leaving players like Xola Mlambo, Kearyn Baccus, Phumlani Ntshangase and Augustine Mulenga out as free agents.