Kaizer Chiefs legend Doctor Khumalo has revealed that Amakhosi youngster Mfundo Vilakazi regularly reaches out to him and he has encouraged him to block out noise and work on improving himself.
Khumalo said this after the South African junior international’s Man of the Match performance in Chiefs’ 1-0 win over Scottland FC in the Toyota Cup at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Sunday.
Vilakazi, 20, and other youngsters at Chiefs have especially in the last season been compared to their peers at other big clubs, their quality and capabilities – especially after Mohau Nkota, Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Relebohile Mofokeng all moved abroad.
“A player I usually talk to is Mfundo Vilakazi,” said Khumalo on SABC TV.
“Sometimes he WhatsApp or calls me and then I give advice because he wants to know is there anything wrong that he is doing because he doesn’t get game-time.
“And I said ‘don’t worry about those things, the thing that you need to worry about is for you to work hard in order to be the first’.”
Khumalo also said he has realised that the players are put in a conflicting place by suggestions and advices from other people, having to decide to either express themselves or doing what others would like them to do.
“Look, at the end of the day, this is why we don’t get the best out of them because they are not themselves, we tell them what to do,” he added.
“So let’s not fill up their minds with something that we want. Let them also give us what they feel is comfortable for themselves.”