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HomeTransfer CentreCardoso - Why Sundowns Had To Let Lorch Leave

Cardoso – Why Sundowns Had To Let Lorch Leave

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says Thembinkosi Lorch was not happy at the club due to limited first-team opportunities.

Lorch, 31, joined Sundowns in a major January transfer deadline move last year with major fanfare as a star of Orlando Pirates moving over to Chloorkop.

He was seen as the perfect figure to aleviate the pressures on club captain and chief playmaker Themba Zwane as one of Rulani Mokwena’s main targets during his tenure.

But his spell at the club quickly fizzled out due to competition and fell completely out of favour upon the exit of Mokwena to Wydad – whom he has now lured to work with in Morocco again – his third stint under the coach after first working together at Orlando Pirates.

“Lorch, as you can imagine, he was not happy here, and it’s important that players are happy, we cannot sustain players that are not in the context of the environment where they feel they can perform,” Cardoso said when asked about his exit from Sundowns.

“Sometimes it’s important to give them the air they need to breathe, so they can express and also have the game-time they need to play – Lorch is not a young player. In the last [few years], he’s not played that much, it was important to let him go [to play football].”

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Cardoso went on to explain that the decisions were easy from the club, as the players who left in the mid-season window, had requested to gain opportunities to be regular starters elsewhere, which they facilitated in loans or permanent exits like Lesiba Nku.

The former Polokwane City and Marumo Gallants winger completed a R5-million transfer to Stellenbosch, while Masandawana lured Adams in the opposite direction.

“I called him after the decision was finalised, all the players, Lesiba Nku, Lebo [Maboe], I spoke with all of them and completely in peace regarding all options we did, everybody is happy and that’s the most important thing, that everyone is happy,” he explained.

“We work with men that are not only football players, but they also have families, they have kids, and for example, with Lesiba I said ‘Hey, it’s time for you to go. You can’t go home to a family that’s not happy. Not your kids saying papa, did you play, what’s happening?’

“No people need to have lives and I’m happy things worked out in the right way.

“So that they can follow their path and have a place where they can be happy, everyone is a human being and we should respect that, it’s what we do here at Sundowns.”

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