Former Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has given more details about what transpired between himself and Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos.
In recent months, there had been back-and-forths in press conference, where Broos and Mngqithi made comments, especially after Mngqithi dropped both Teboho Mokoena and Khuliso Mudau for a period. Broos was less than happy with the situation as both were key national team players.
“Now, on that one, I’m so sorry, because that, those are the principles that I live with,” Mngqithi told Robert Marawa on Marawa Sports Worldwide last week.
“And I can never tell any coach in his club which player to use and which player not to use. If I’m the national team coach, which I hope one day I will ever get that job, I will always speak to the coach of the club, because I always believe it works out better when there is a relationship between the coach of a club and the coach of the national team, because they can help each other, because both of them have got a certain form of influence towards the player.
“And when the coach approaches me and says, ‘Why? Because I just want to know, because, hey, this is affecting my plans. I need this player for the national team,’ and I give him an answer. Because the truth is, as a coach, you have to take a decision that is your livelihood. It’s your job. You You want to make sure that you win the match at the end of the day, because you will be chased for not winning the match. Let me give you an example.
“When Hugo goes, where was he going? Was it South Sudan or Uganda? No, no, I don’t think it was Uganda, I think it was South Sudan. And this boy from Stellenbosch was left behind, Jayden Adams. And I love the boy. I believe he’s such a good football player, but when the coach leaves him behind him, I don’t even know what the reasons are. I say, ‘What happened here?’ Then I start to ask myself, is it disciplinary issues or what? And when something like that pops up as a coach, you should ask, ‘No man, this player should be playing, and this player has been playing, why is he not playing?’ With just that conversation, maybe you will even ask that coach to say, ‘You know, can you also speak to him because of A, B, C, D and E, we are, we are uncomfortable to play him. And maybe with your talk, he might understand that it’s not personal, it’s business,’ and then he will come right.
“And we had a very nice discussion with Hugo. And after that, I think we understood each other. But the truth is, sometimes the positions that we get make us to lose the respect of others and think we can just talk anyhow about a particular person and not understand that maybe that would hurt him. Sometimes I would do it, not because I’ve got that intent, but if I do it and somebody says, ‘Manqoba, why are you saying this?’ And I realise I was wrong, I say I’m sorry. Because maybe I was not looking at it in that perspective. I was looking at it may be trying to illustrate a point.”
