Sundowns future looks very bright 

Seeing Keletso Makgalwa and Siphesihle Mkhulise being thrown into the deep end by Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane in their quest to clinch the Absa Premiership title and the Nedbank Cup just says a lot about Mosimane’s intentions at the club.

It’s very clear that Mosimane is already thinking about the future of the club, looking at the age of some of the experienced players in the team like captain Hlompho Kekana, Tebogo Langerman and Ricardo Nascimento.

The Downs coach has already stated on record that it is important for him to sign young players who are at least 25 years old or younger, well that’s expect for the 30-year old former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder George Maluleka.

And from the way I see it, Maluleka will in no time play the kind of role that is currently being executed by Kekana in terms of guiding youngsters in the future and being a good role model to them.

But, what I really admire about Mosimane and his technical team is their belief in young players.

The club has promoted quite a number of youngsters from the MultiChoice Diski Challenge team in the last few years and they are part of the 2019/2020 squad.

Already Motjeka Madisha is a regular in the team, Makgalwa is proving himself, Mkhulise as well, Promise Mkhuma, Nicholus Lukhubeni, Harold Majadubodu, Malebogo Modise and Abram Ngcobo are all also biding their time for first team action.

All these youngsters tick the right boxes to be in the first team and formed a formidable Downs side in the MDC, led by none other than coach David Notoane, whose eye for talent is just out of this world. Notoane knows a gem when he sees one and no wonder Downs MDC side have been a force to be reckoned from 2015 to date.

Now, with the core of the MDC squad already being part of the senior team, one can only expect nothing but the best that’s going to come out from Downs in the future.

Like I said, Mosimane has already started with Makgalwa and Mkhulise, now wait till Mkhuma is brought in. Just thinking about all these players getting regular game time in the first team makes me excited.

Thing is, I’ve seen the growth of these players and the kind of discipline and professionalism they have been taught at the club will certainly help them to be the best players they are set out to be.

There is no doubt that in no time Downs will be the best team in terms of developing and promoting players to their first team.

Other teams need to catch up and go back to investing more in development and enjoy the fruits of their success. We have also seen SuperSport United doing the same thing in terms of developing and promoting players, GladAfrica Championship side Ajax Cape Town have been the front runners in terms of development, while Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs are steadily doing so, but tend to loan out their youngsters.

Anyway, that’s a story for another day. This opinion piece was basically about the success of Downs development and how the club has put faith in youngsters.

And before I forget, I would like to applaud the Premier Soccer League and their partners in broadcasting for the coverage of the games. It’s been really enjoyable watching the games from TV. The noise background of fans makes the games much more entertaining and they have really proved to be the front runners in African football and meeting international standards.

I really didn’t expect this after watching LaLiga and the English Premiership who both partnered with EA Sports to make the games entertaining from TV, even though there are no fans at the stadium.

I got really excited when I heard the brass band playing in the background during the Pirates and Downs game on Tuesday night. So, yes, bravo to the PSL, keep on doing good work. I know my previous opinion piece wondering if you guys will be able to match up with LaLiga and EPL in terms of broadcasting games probably got to you. But it’s good to see that you’ve proven me wrong and the association was able to step up.

And that’s where I leave it for today…

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