Pitso: We don’t want free players

“We don’t want to be a club that signs players who are free. We don’t want players who are free because they are free. So everything free we must sign? No,” said the former Bafana Bafana coach.

The African Coach-of-the-Year says his recruit strategy is simple: he will only sign a player he needs.

“When we sign we want to sign a player in a specific position. We no longer sign because a player is available… and we limit our signings, I think we signed three last year.

“The players who we try to sign cost R12-million or are not available. We want certain players, we have approached the teams. One team mentioned R13-million, the other teams said ‘no, the players in not available, we are not selling.”

Long-time Sundowns target Ajax Cape Town defender Rivaldo Coetzee has gone AWOL at Inkamva, and is believed to be well on his way to Masandawana.

Nonetheless, ‘Jingles’ has recruited some players to Chloorkop on a free transfer, and says if the players he is looking for to strengthen his team are free agents, he would not hesitate to offer them a deal.

“When there is an opportunity for free players, I will sign, but I don’t live for that. I don’t do that. I sign for a specific position and we know who we are targeting, and that is the player we want.

“We will go for him whether he is contracted or free, if he is free we will sign. Leonardo Castro was free and we signed him. I am not saying we’re not signing free players. Ricardo Nascimento was free and we signed him. But seven months before that I was following Ricardo, I went to Europe to see him play.”