Johannesburg — Had it not been that they "slept" in their pursuits, Mamelodi Sundowns would have two of the best South American internationals at their disposal. That is the opinion of co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi who opened up about their failed transfers.
Known to have a knack of signing South American players, Sundowns once hunted down Colombian and Brazilian Luis Diaz and Vinicius Jr. But after delays during the negotiations, they lost out to FC Porto and Real Madrid respectively.
Diaz was recently the talk of town, following his lucrative move from Porto to Liverpool in the recently closed transfer window. While Vinicius Jr has been one of the standout players at Madrid, inspiring them to the top of La Liga standing thus far.
“We’ve lost a lot of other players,” said Mngqithi, despite lauding the network of scouts that have done some good business for them in South America. “One of them (the player that we lost) signed for Liverpool recently, can you believe it?
“We should have signed him before he joined Porto. We were on top of Diaz. Unfortunately, we were delayed for one or two days and he signed for Porto. We have looked at a lot of players. I don’t want to lie to you. You will think that I am.”
He added: “Even Vinicius was one of the players that was on the list of the players that we should have signed. We saw him in the Brazilian Cup and we were trying to chase him and we slept a little bit. The following day, Madrid signed him."
Mngqithi, though, knows too well there's no use crying over spilt milk. After all, there are South Americans, such as Ricardo Nascimento, Gaston Sirino and Leonardo Castro, who’ve contributed to Sundowns’ success in the last few years.
And that’s why he’s banking on new signing Erwin Saavedra to follow in those footsteps. But the Bolivian will have a bigger role to play than just being” a very good player” as he’s tipped to be key in the revival of the want-away Sirino.
Sirino has endured a turbulent outing at Downs in the last few months, amid his open intentions to link up with former coach Pitso Mosimane at Al Ahly. But Mngqithi and Co. are banking on the arrival of Saavendra, his mate, to help him settle down.
“The club doesn’t have a problem letting anyone go. He’s a very important and good player. He’s showing all the signs that he wants to play. We could not just let him go when there were no offers and when he wants to play,” he said.
“I believe that he’s going to come back stronger now. Maybe, the arrival of Saavedra will also make him more powerful. We’ve signed Saavedra and registered him for CAF matches. And he’s a very good football player by the way.”
Saavedra was the only international signee that Mngqithi confirmed during the Nedbank Cup last 32 launch on Tuesday – after preferring not to comment on signing Ethiopian-born striker Abubekar Nasir in the recently closed transfer window.
But it’s their signing of Teboho Mokoena and Bradley Ralani from SuperSport United and Cape Town City that has set some tongues wagging. A feat that Mngqithi says they pulled off so that they are able to compete against the best in Africa.
“We are competing with Al Ahly, Wydad and Zamalek and all these teams make us look like underdogs. But we have to fight for that space and make sure that we take Sundowns to a level that we think they are capable of,” he said.
IOL Sport