Orlando Pirates has become a team synonymous with having a high turnover of players every season and former Buccaneers star Teko Modise has shed insight into why so many players simply don’t live up to the expectations at the club.
Over the past three seasons, the Buccaneers have signed a staggering 28 players, while 20 have left on free transfers and some have been shipped out on loan.
It’s raised question marks over those in charge of recruitment at the club, but there have also been cases of talented players simply not kicking it on at the club.
The likes of Evidence Makgopa and Goodman Mosele come to mind this season, while they have not been afforded chances, injuries played their part – the bigger picture, Modise feels is about being prepared to represent the institution.
“The big difference was there’s no time. When you join Orlando Pirates, you need to be ready – mentally, and physically. Because what comes with that team is totally different,” Modise said in Edition 100 of iDiski Times when asked how he slotted seamlessly into the club after his move from SuperSport United.
“And this is me, a player that won so much with Sundowns, but it’s a different team. If you’re not ready, you get swallowed by the system, and people forget about you.
“And for me, because at the time when I joined Orlando Pirates, I already had game-time at SuperSport. I was coached. And I was also in the mix of just joining the national team because I was playing COSAFA then. So I was just ready to play for a big team.
“What helps as well is when you have teammates that are supportive of your career, because I remember after joining, Joseph Makhanya and Cheeseboy Mokoena pulled me aside and said they are happy that there’s a talent like me that joined Orlando Pirates, if there’s anything that I need, they are there to help me and these are guys that when I come in, they’re not even playing.
“But because they are Pirates players, they understand what it means to play for Pirates. And I think that’s the challenge that other players who are new at Orlando Pirates have.”
While Pirates have shown incredible leaps this season under the management of Jose Riveiro, they have come short in challenging Mamelodi Sundowns for the title, it’s evident though, the project is on the right course as they are second, in the Nedbank Cup semi-finals and have an MTN8 crown to their name this season.
But when diving into the mentality of the current squad that trail Masandawana by 18 points, Modise feels they are still in the phase of grasping what it means to play for the club and potentially the foundation is being set now to handle the mental aspects.
“There aren’t too many players within the Pirates structure that know what it means to play for that club. So, therefore, you don’t have a reference to be able to show yes, when Happy [Jele] was there, he understands what it means to play for Orlando Pirates,” he explained.
“So sometimes players, they think that they’d have time to adjust, to adapt to it. But you don’t have time, because when you’re playing for such big teams, you playing high tempo games, you playing a big game every game, because everybody’s out there to try and knock you out.
“And when you play for smaller teams, you only have six games, those big six games in a season. So that’s the difference when you have to come to such big teams. You must understand that you need to have that type of performance week in, week out, so that’s the pressure that most players can’t handle.”
You can read the full interview with Teko Modise, where he also opens up how showboating almost ended his Bafana Bafana career, but also criticises the new forms of showboating in development structures, and much more in edition 100 of the iDiski Times newspaper – available for free on our website.
