Durban — Cape Town City Coach Eric Tinkler has finally opened up about the club’s surprising transfer dealings in the recently closed January transfer window.
The Citizens have arguably been one of the busiest clubs in the recent window, losing numerous high profile players amongst them Abbubaker Mobara, Dove Edmilson, Brandon Ralani and Fagrie Lakay to seemingly bigger and more ambitious clubs.
The departure of Ralani to Mamelodi Sundowns and the club’s top scorer in Lakay has certainly come as a shock to many but Tinkler believes with the new additions, his squad has enough cover to continue their progress.
“Losing Fagrie is a massive loss to the club. It didn’t help us that we lost him very late in the window as well. We tried keeping him at the club by inflating his price and we were very surprised when they accepted the price tag we put on him.”
“We can reflect on the other players we lost but we lost our top scorer in Fagrie and our top assist maker in Ralani and we have to look to replace those players. We have managed to find a winger in Venezuelen international, Darwin Gonzalez but we are still looking to find a replacement for Fagrie,” he explained.
The former Orlando Pirates mentor also explained the growing trend of South American scouting amongst Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs and gave a brief account of the kind of positivity that arrives with players from the likes of Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia etc.
“There is a lot of talent in that part of the world. The brand of football they play is very similar to how we play, very technically gifted players and that aids their really quick adaptation to all the teams in the league,” he expressed.
The Gold and Blue Army will also have to make do without the exploits of influencial midfielder, Mpho Makola who has been suspended from action for the next two months. Tinkler however believes he has great depth in that department of the team.
“We don’t have him for the next six games and it’s a big loss because he's one of the most experienced players we have. Even though his contribution will be missed in the changeroom as well, we do however have enough players to cover that area of the field while he is away.”
IOL Sport