New Wydad Athletic Club head coach Rulani Mokwena was non-committal when asked about South African transfer targets.
Mokwena was unveiled on Thursday in a special ceremony at the Complexe Mohamed Benjelloun after his tour of the facilities.
He put pen-to-paper on a three-year contract, just weeks after parting ways with Mamelodi Sundowns where he won the African Football League and DStv Premiership last season.
Speculation has been rife in Moroccan media that Mokwena will rope in five technical staff members from South Africa, with Sinethemba Badela as one of his assistants, while two players have already been targeted to join him in North Africa.
“We haven’t discussed players yet but we will have a serious discussion with regards to that,” he said without flinching at their packed media conference.
Mokwena went on to discuss the concerns that the squad he’s inherited may not be good enough but could have an advantage with his knowledge of the core group, having faced Wydad on several occasions during his time with Masandawana.
“Yes and no [there are advantages of having faced Wydad many times], there are still members of the squad that are still here, in my experience watching a couple of games of last season, as compared to the ones we played the season before,” Mokwena said.
“It was in the AFL, the Champions League when I was at Sundowns in the semi-finals, they knocked us out, and now it’s about trying to find the best balance within in the team. When I look at the squad I say, based on the last match…
“There’s quite a couple of names I didn’t see on the pitch, which were names we played against in the AFL final… Even now I see Jabrane is gone but at least there are still important players like [Yousef] El Motie, [Jama;l] Harkass, there’s still enough quality, [Saifeddine] Bouhra is still here.
“I know we’ve lost [Yahia] Attiat-Allah, Jabrane is a big loss but the team is strong still and can it be stronger? Yes. Will it be stronger? Yes. We will work day and night to try and do this but we also understand how difficult it’s going to be and that’s the most important message. We know it’s difficult but it’s achievable with patience and time, support, I’m sure we have the team around me.
“When I listen to the people who brought me here, all I hear is ambition, they want to win and this club to be successful which excites me, it’s a difficult challenge but not impossible.”
The 37-year-old is hoping to replicate his cup triumph at Sundowns this past campaign by steering Wydad to league success, having lost won it in 2021.
