Having lost, in quick succession, coach Muhsin Ertugral to Kaizer Chiefs and assistant coach Ian Gorowa to Moroka Swallows, Absa Cup holders Ajax Cape Town on Tuesday turned to their youth coach, Craig Rosslee, to head their technical operation for the coming Premier Soccer League (PSL) season.
Rosslee, a durable former player with Hellenic, Santos and Cape Town Spurs, will have as his assistant coaches Mike Ruebesch, who coached Emory University in the United States, and former Zimbabwean international and prominent PSL goal-scorer Wilfred Mugeyi.
Former Bafana left-back David Nyathi, a member of the successful squad that gained South Africa’s only success in the African Nations Cup in 1996, will coach Ajax’s reserve team in an intricate but concise operation described by chairman John Comitis as ”the continuation of a policy to groom outstanding young talent and pursue our ambition to become the best footballing side in the country”.
Comitis also threw down the gauntlet to other PSL teams and proclaimed ”none of the players from the successful and exciting team that won the Absa Cup will be on the market”.
”We have not built an academy designed to supply other clubs with the fruits of our hard work,” he added — with a particular ”hands off” warning to Ertugral, who had already proclaimed he would like nothing better than to transport several of his young stars of the 2006/07 season to Chiefs’ headquarters at Naturena for the coming season. — Sapa