Mamelodi Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund says he is not surprised to hear the baying of wolves at his door after the Premier Soccer League (PSL) champions’ 4-0 defeat against SC Sfaxien in Caf’s Confederation Cup encounter in Tunisia last weekend.
”It’s all part of the game,” said the Golden Boy coach with the Midas touch, who holds the imposing record of guiding four different clubs to the PSL title.
”Yesterday’s success is fleeting and soon forgotten in the face of even momentarily failure,” said Igesund on Wednesday as he prepared for Saturday afternoon’s SAA Supa8 clash against newly crowned Telkom Charity Cup champions Bloemfontein Celtic at Loftus.
”I’ve been around in this game long enough to know how easy it is for the bouquets to be replaced by brickbats,” added the Sundowns coach.
Bt what has irked Igesund about the under-current of criticism that has come his way is that it has been reinforced by false allegations of dissatisfaction among his players.
”Everyone is entitled to an opinion,” he said, ”and I can handle criticism as well as the next man. But it mustn’t be bolstered with mischievous, false stories that the Sundowns players are ganging up against me.
”This is simply gutter speculation,” added Igesund, ”and it has got me seething, with the only way of answering it to start winning again.”
And, in this respect, he sees the game against Celtic of paramount importance.
”Not that it was their fault,” he says, ”but it was Celtic who replaced Sundowns in the Telkom Charity Cup after we were cruelly prevented from attempting to win this particular event for a fourth successive time because of the Caf commitment in the Confederation Cup.
”And then what happens? Celtic go and win the Charity event to boot,” he added.
”So there will certainly be a strong motivating factor riding for us on Saturday,” said Igesund.
The Sundowns coach is hoping to have Mbulelo Mabisela back after injury to bolster a leaky defence and there is hope that Shakes Ngwenya will have recovered from a badly twisted ankle.
But last season’s Footballer of the Year, Godfrey Sapula, remains a doubtful starter and the prospective signings, Chilean midfielder Jorge Acuna and Brazilian striker Marcos Brito, will be arriving in South Africa too late for the Supa8 game — even if the terms of their contracts are suitably ironed out to everyone’s satisfaction. — Sapa