Kaizer Chiefs target Monare has his eyes firmly on the prize at Wits

Thabang Monare is keen to focus on the task at hand, namely winning silverware with Bidvest Wits, and is reluctant to look ahead to next season, when whatever happens, he will be donning the shirt of another club.

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Kaizer Chiefs have been constantly linked with a move for the Wits midfielder, with Monare unlikely to go to the Limpopo province to play for TTM, who have acquired the Absa Premiership status of the Clever Boys.

The difficulty right now for Amakhosi, however, is that they are serving a two-window transfer ban, though they have lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

“At this point I am just focusing on playing for the team (Wits),” Monare told Phakaaathi this week.

“I don’t know where I will end up next season but I still have games to play for Wits and that is my main focus.”

The 30 year-old does admit that the sale of Wits came as a surprise to the whole side, with the owners deciding to sell just a year before the club’s centenary.

“It came as a shock to be honest,” says Monare.

“We were focusing on the lockdown and when it was going to end, and suddenly the focus had also been shifted to the team being sold. No one saw it coming, from players, to club management, to the fans and followers of football in the country. But it is done so we have to shift and focus on the positives. I believe in anything that happens, there is always a positive. We are working hard on winning our remaining games.”

Wits have a busy end to the 2019/20 season, which will kick off on August 8 with the Nedbank Cup semifinals at Orlando Stadium. The Clever Boys will play Mamelodi Sundowns in the last four, and on August 12, they will then re-open their Absa Premiership campaign against Chiefs.

Wits are currently ten points behind Chiefs, and only in with an outside shot at the Premiership title, though they do have a game in hand, and do still have to play Amakhosi twice before the season ends.

“That is one advantage that we have,” admits Monare.

“But we still have to go onto the field and play for those points.”

More realistically, Wits certainly have a chance at the Nedbank Cup, especially if they can overcome Sundowns, with only Bloemfontein Celtic or Baroka FC awaiting them in the final.

Winning some silverware would be a great way for Wits to give the club and head coach Gavin Hunt the perfect send off.

“It is a great opportunity from that point of view,” adds Monare.

“We would be creating a piece of history of some kind.”

On top of that, at least, after a long wait of nearly five months, Monare is as relieved as anyone that we are about to literally get the ball rolling again.

“It has been frustrating, sitting at home, not doing anything. We started training and have been enjoying it, but we were also training without any idea when we would play. Now we know, it is great we will be playing and we are looking forward to it.”

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