Pitso opens up about his ‘friend’ walking out of Pirates

Micho has since been said to be on his way to coach Egypt giants Zamalek and a visibly sad Mosimane told reporters he will miss the “friendly competition” between him and Micho that saw the mentors go head-to-head for the Absa Premiership title in the past two seasons.

“I must say I was very sad because Micho is a personal friend of mine before football. Micho gave me Dennis Onyango and he gave me another left-back before. I know Micho for many years when he was still at Saint George. He invited me to go to a Secafa tournament to come and see players and he highlighted Dennis and other players, I was still at SuperSport United, that’s how far we come,” said Mosimane.

“I’ve sent him a text and I told him I’m saddened by him leaving because we had a really good friendly competition, we never had a go at each other. He is a professional and a humble guy and he even handles a loss much better than me. Him and Steve Komphela, those guys know how to handle a lose.

“You know when you have someone who keeps you on your toes and you fight all the time, and then it’s like oh, what happens to the fight? This guy has been pushing me for the last two years but Pirates will always be Pirates. They have got the quality and the players and they’ll always be there,” Mosimane added.

The Buccaneers have tasked Rhulani Mokwena to lead the technical team assisted by Fadlu Davids. Mokwena served as Jingles’ right-hand man at Chloorkop and Mosimane says his door is always open for Mokwena if he needs advice.

“Rhulani must never worry… I’ve lost three games in a row and I know how it feels and everybody starts to talk and everybody finds mistakes and writes you off. I’ll talk to him if I have to if he wants advice, I don’t want to interfere a lot. I just hope that it must never be the situation where people say we told you, he can’t do it as a head coach. I hope he will be given a chance.

“I even texted Rhulani and I wished him luck. He has been looking for that and he has the opportunity to do it. He must just fly and I said a long time ago when he was still next to me that he is going to be better than me in the future. But you know how football is, you still need to travel the road. He must never worry about the loss against Highlands Park because it is part of football.”

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