Orlando Pirates midfielder Makhehleni Makhaula says the changes at Mamelodi Sundowns aren’t fooling him into believing that they will be an easy target in the 2024/25 Betway Premiership season.
The seven-time champions will be under the guidance of Manqoba Mngqithi and Steve Komphela and some factions of fans believe the changes will have an effect on the team come next season.
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Makhaula’s Pirates have finished behind Sundowns in the league in the past two seasons and there are expectation on the Buccaneers to give the league title a real go this time around.
The 34-year-old spoke to iDiski Times senior writer Velile Mnyandu in edition 165 of the newspaper where he admitted that Pirates want the league and have the squad to do get it, however they cannot focus on just Sundowns.
“I don’t think [because of] what happened at Sundowns, the technical team changes, we could be the favourites,” Makhaula told IDiski Times.
“They still have the same players, they still have the same assistant coaches, so it’s the same team.
“But we don’t know if they can come and maybe surprise us with something else and the league is not [just] Sundowns. The league is Richards Bay, it’s AmaZulu, it’s [Kaizer] Chiefs but because they [Sundowns] are always winning the league, everyone is going to say that but we have the capacity to challenge them.
“We have the players. I have seen it in Spain and the new guys have gelled well. I have once said to my roommate that ‘you know we have a really good squad, like we can challenge for the league but we must concentrate each and every time and in each and every game because if we don’t concentrate the teams will punish you. When they punish you it’s difficult to come back sometimes’.”
