Pitso opens up about City’s ‘love letter’

The incident traces back to March when Mosimane admitted that he would like to have City captain Lebogang Manyama in his team.

“The last time I spoke about Manyama, I received a letter,” Mosimane told reporters.

“The media asked me if I would like to have this player (Manyama) and I said who wouldn’t want to have this player. And then I received a long letter … I have never seen a love letter like that. It was a long letter written to me to say I am poaching [players].

“So I don’t want to talk about players from other teams. In South Africa you can’t speak. Barcelona can speak about Phillippe Coutinho who is contracted to Liverpool and there are no issues. But here at home people write letters. They wrote a letter and I kept quiet,” said the African Coach-of-the-Year.

Eric Tinkler once said that Mosimane talks too much and ‘Jingles’ says he will “bark” back in due time.

“Even Tinkler said a few things…that I talk too much, and I kept quiet and I didn’t answer. You know I will [answer] in time, I’m waiting.

“The chairman of Maritzburg United (Farook Kadodia) said we are telling the players to go AWOL. So I don’t want to talk about players who are in other teams, I will be in trouble because the letter was supposed to go to Fifa … I still want to coach,” said Mosimane.

The ex-Bafana Bafana coach insisted that it is normal for a club to approach a player in the backdoors before making a formal bid to purchase him.

“It is the game of football. Do you think Barcelona can sign Coutinho without talking to him [first]? Let’s be honest. What if Coutinho says ‘I don’t want to play for you (Barcelona) I am happy at Liverpool, I am happy here, I won’t desert my family’? So you have got to talk to the player before you pay for him.

“You want to tell me that all the players that have moved from one team to another have never had negotiations before? Let’s live in the real world. We can say so and so is poaching, but Rhulani Mokwena spoke to Orlando Pirates before he left.”