CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – MAY 18: Themba Zwane of Sundowns and Sihle Nduli of Stellenbosch FC during the DStv Premiership match between Stellenbosch FC and Mamelodi Sundowns at Athlone Stadium on May 18, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa.
(Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)
Stellenbosch FC’s Head of
Recruitment Brendon Fourie has explained how they manage to remain competitive
despite selling the likes of Junior Mendieta, Ashley Du Preez and Iqraam
Rayners, while also naming the players who attracted their interest as replacements.
Stellies have remained in the top six in the elite division for the past
three years, in spite of selling their best attacking players, such as Du Preez
to Kaizer Chiefs, Mendieta to Mamelodi Sundowns and recently Rayners to Chloorkop too.
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The side, who also sold their captain Deano Van Rooyen to Orlando Pirates in
the previous transfer window, had their players in demand, like as Fawaaz
Basadien and Ismael Toure.
Fourie has credited head coach Steve Barker for coming up with a formula they
started after the sale of the Argentine to Masandawana, as after they could not
afford a similar player in the market, they off-set his impact in terms of goal
contributions by upgrading their defence.
The intention was to concede
less than in the previous campaign.
“He [Mendieta] was 29 years old and had just had the best season of his
career. We said can we replace Mendieta one for one? Can we replace 16 goal
involvements in the PSL? The players we thought were at that level were Themba
Zwane, Peter Shalulile, Ashley Du Preez was there, Monnapule Saleng and Nduduzo Sibiya,” Fourie said at the Business of Football Network gathering.
“Can we afford any of those players? No. So, what do we do? We had to sell
Junior and replace him in the aggregate. We said we can’t score the same amount
of goals that we did with Mendieta, but we can concede less. He was worth around
nine-goal difference to us.
“There was a defender on the market, Ismael Toure, worth 9,3 expected goal
difference. The upgrade on Toure was the same as Junior Mendieta had. It was
difficult to explain to everyone, like we’re crazy. The upgrade on the
centre-back was so big we had a free shot on the left wing.
“Luckily, we [signed]
a winger Anicet Oura, he exceeded our expectations, but he was basically a free hit
[not expected to replace Mendieta], we could take a chance and he turned out to
be exceptional,” Fourie added.
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After finishing third last season, the Cape Winelands outfit have remained
competitive this term, in spite of selling Rayners and Van Rooyen, lying fourth
in the standings after seven matches.
They also won their first trophy, the Carling Knockout, in December last
year.
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