Cape Town Spurs head coach Shaun Bartlett is confident his side will retain their key players ahead of the 2023/24 season.
The likes of South Africa U23 stars Ashley Cupido, Lincoln Vyver and Rushwin Dortley have attracted massive interest from Gauteng in recent months Bartlett was adamant they will be part of the squad for the upcoming campaign.
Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns have been sniffing around their most promising talents over the last 12 months but their promotion to the top-flight has meant they would be able to keep them a little while longer.
“They are here to stay, they are staying, they are staying, there’s enough gatzby’s in Cape Town to keep them there, so they are staying,” Bartlett said confidently.
The Bafana Bafana legend went on to state there’s real ambition brewing in the squad and excitement to exceed expectations and not just fight to retain their top-flight status.
“I’ve not been given a mandate [for the first season back], secondly you want to be successful as a coach, you want to compete for everything whether it’s the league or cup, I think realistically top eight would be a good achievement,” Bartlett said.
“But for our players, they would want to end higher, big the big teams in the country, I won’t mention names as it might be disrespectful to others… every team in the league is a big team now – we just need to gather as many points as possible.”
Spurs open up their season back in the top-flight with an away clash against TS Galaxy at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga.
