Gallants coach Malesela hoping to hang on to his best players

Since he became a head coach in 2012, Dan “Dance” Malesela has never had the privilege of taking charge of a team that has the financial muscle to hold onto its best players or to recruit players the he wants.

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Now as the Marumo Gallants management irons out contractual matters with players, Malesela is hoping to hold on to his best talent.

“A lot of the players are still contracted to the club and nothing concrete has been tabled for any player. There are a few whose contracts are coming to an end, like Miguel Timm but we are trying to keep everybody. It will be difficult even with those who are contracted,” said Malesela.

“When your camp is settled, it makes coaching easier and makes progress a lot easier as well because you don’t have to start up fresh in terms of trying to solidify the philosophy. But you never know with football but I am sure that if we can keep the majority of the players, then we are one step ahead of a lot of things. When you are coaching clubs with limited resources, you must just cross your fingers and hope that you don’t lose players,” he added.

If he is lucky to be given some freedom to sign players of his choice at Gallants, the former Chippa United mentor hopes to land ball-playing players as he is keen on building a side that plays attractive football.

“I am very strict on playing good football. I want my players to play good football and win and they must always think about getting a goal all the time which is the most important thing. Unfortunately, sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t go in because defenders are very wise these days and it’s hard to score but that does not mean we should not try and when we try, it has to look good. I don’t remember a game that we played with this club and we created less than four scoring chances.”

Gallants will take part in the Caf Confederation Cup next season after finishing as Nedbank Cup runners-up following a defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns in the final. Sundowns will play in the Caf Champions League as the DStv Premiership champions.