MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.00pm.
MANNING RANGERS’ coach Gordon Igesund, himself the subject of speculation about switching teams, has put 12 Rangers players on the transfer list, saying he wants to change the Durban-based club’s style next season.
Igesund will not name the players on the list, although in consultation with the club’s directors a “relatively final list” has been drawn up. Igesund stresses that the motive behind the move is not “that I’m tired of these players”, but it’s just that they have been at the club too long.
Some players, Igesund admits, are in a “gray area” where their performance and capability to show him they have what it takes to play at Ragners next season will keep them off the transfer list.
Others have already been approached by Johannesburg clubs and others, and Igesund nobly says he won’t stand in their way as he revamps the club.
“We need new skills to play a new style of football,” Igesund says.
“The past three seasons we haven’t had the resources to go out and buy players,” and Igesund wants to bring in new blood for his new style of football. Rangers’ fairytale performance most of this season has provided some of the resources needed to change the style of play.
Igesund says his players “aren’t that comfortable on the ball” and therefore play a straightforward kind of soccer, dragging the ball down the field. He hopes to bring an almost European “one-touch” style of play to Rangers.
“We need players who are very comfortable on the ball, and who can move it around the field in an exciting manner,” he says. “In order to play with 10-15 passes on an attack we want players with the confidence to move the ball quickly out in the middle of the field.