TS Galaxy head coach Sead Ramovic has hit back at Rulani Mokwena after he stated some issues are not meant for the public, revealing parts of the insults the Mamelodi Sundowns coach allegedly told him.
Mokwena mentioned the Galaxy boss when speaking about the public spat of Hugo Broos in Belgian media and suggested that some things are meant to be done in private.
“You are all familiar with some of the things that my colleague at TS Galaxy has said and I picked up the phone and I called him, direct and I raised my displeasure,” he said on Monday morning ahead of their Nedbank Cup last 32 clash against La Masia.
Mokwena reiterated that he wasn’t raised to air dirty laundry in public and he would rather discuss issues privately about the tirade of Ramovic after their Carling Knockout exit at the hands of the Rockets.
However, Ramovic again didn’t take the latest comments lightly and went onto a long rumble about the situation.
“I didn’t come to South Africa to argue with anyone, my goal was not to fight with anyone. I didn’t come here to make any headlines,” he told journalists on Thursday
“I came here that my team improves, that my club improves, that maybe one day when I leave my club the new coach will find a top club and he can will continue to have even more success – this is my goal.
“If somebody like he did to undermine or disrespect my players, the hard work they do every day and if we win a game against them we should all know they are spending over R150 million over the last two seasons for players. It means they have a squad with just unbelieveable quality.
“And if a coach loses against us, a team that brought players from NFD, brought players from U21, and they see that TS Galaxy does not have this financial power, but we have to find ways how we can succeed and I think that we do a very good job…
“If I see my players every day how hard they work, I will always protect [them], I will always raise my voice, if somebody – doesn’t matter who it is – disrespect my players, disrespect the value of my club, my staff, of me and this is what he did.
“He came with that cheap excuse that he didn’t have his seven [Bafana] players. So it means that he disrespected first of all his own players that played and when you see his own players they had on the field against us, top class. With this team he can also win a league.
“But if he feels that he cannot have a plan B, it also speaks to his quality and I don’t want to go there, and I don’t care. I care that we have principles, I have values and I care about my players and no one will disrespect the hard work they did on this day to win against Sundowns.”
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Ramovic then recalled when Mokwena called him and also revealed some of the strong language the Sundowns coach allegedly used.
“When you talk to someone [in private] it should stay with what you talk, and you cannot go then afterwards again into the public [and say] ‘I did this and this’ and now we have to finish the sentence,” he continued.
“So Rulani didn’t call me after it happened, it was on the 13th of November, I raised my voice that he disrespected my players, me, my staff and the club. I didn’t attack him, I just protected my players and I will not let anyone disrespect them.
“After a month, 29th of December, we were in the bus to Mbombela, Mudau came to me when he saw me in a mall a day before and he asked me ‘coach, when are you going to buy me?’ (with a smile). I told him ‘I can’t buy you because you are too expensive’.
“He asked me then ‘why you fight with my coach?’ and I told him, it is not my goal to fight with anybody. I explained him exactly the same things I explained to you. ‘I will let not let anyone… and please tell your coach to stop undermine your colleagues and their work, and stop to undermine my players’.
“What happened, I got a call from him during the bus drive to Mbombela. I pick up the phone and he started to yell, to scream and he told me – I will just make it short because he spoke to me for 10 minutes with a lot of nonsense – but what he told it was ‘who the f*** are you to come to my f***ing country and talk to me like this?’ I just quote him. ‘Do you know who my parents are? Be careful how you talk because you are in my f***ing country’.
“After that, I told him that I don’t care who your parents are and then he dropped the phone. This was his high standard of morals.
“I was very disappointed. I can tell you, because I think to get treated from a colleague like this is a very, very small-minded talk.
“I’d like to clarify now, Sundowns is a beautiful club with a high standard of morals, the players are also top. It’s just a case of his behaviour and me now. Again, I have principles and I have values and I stick to them.”
iDiski Times has reached out to Mamelodi Sundowns for a comment on Ramovic’s claims, and is awaiting a response.
