Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker has explained the club’s decision to sideline Lesiba Nku and Bradley Mojela.
This publication broke the news that the Stellies duo are no longer training with the senior team, and Barker has now confirmed the situation.
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Ahead of their crucial Betway Premiership clash at ORBIT College on Wednesday, Barker stated the duo have been sidelined due to footballing reasons.
“There’s always a reason why one gets to these decisions, sometimes it just doesn’t work. It’s not working at that stage for both player and club,” he told Andile Ncube on Metro FM.
“I think Lesiba, at his age and quality, wants to be playing a lot more than he is. It does lead to some frustration at times.
“Bradley came to the club, started really well for us and had a big, massive injury, was out for close to a year with his ACL. He’s struggled a bit to regain his mojo and confidence and belief.
“Sometimes you have honest chats to each other as player and coach, and sometimes those situations require maybe a different club, different move, just to refresh them and get their careers back on track
“I’ve got massive respect for both players, both as people and as footballers, and then whenever we reach these types of situations, it’s not taken lightly or easy.
“And they’re both very good footballers but sometimes it’s just not working.”
Barker did insist there are no off-field issues with both players, and revealed that he is confident the duo will find moves in January despite being sidelined by the club.
“I don’t think there is anything bigger as I said, it’s a question of whether it wasn’t working out,” he continued.
“The player doesn’t necessarily speak to you face to face, one on one – you can see their frustrations, their disappointment.
“You can look at players and see they feel they should be playing; they want to be playing and are not currently getting the minutes, then it’s just best to make those difficult decisions.
“We know both Bradley and Lesiba will find clubs, there’s already been interest in both. It’s not a question of we keep them training and that, they need a little bit of a break also to refresh themselves.
“They’ve got options if they want to continue training at the club, that is available to them or if they just want to go home and refresh themselves whilst their agents look for them – that’s also a decision they can make.
“There is a number of clubs interested, agent and player need to make the right decision, and us as club also. I don’t expect them to be with us after January.”
When asked whether there really isn’t anything more to the decision and it’s just based on football reasons, Barker simply replied: “100%.”
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