SuperSport coach Hunt expects to lose more players to rival clubs

In a frank admission to the media, SuperSport United head coach Gavin Hunt has painted a grim picture to the club’s fans of what to expect at the end of the DStv Premiership season.

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The club’s selling policy means Matsatsantsa a Pitori will always be vulnerable to their more illustrious opponents with a bigger cheque book when they come knocking.

Before the season started, Thapelo Maseko and Patrick Maswanganyi were the two high-profile names that were sold to Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates respectively.

Thatayaone Ditlhokwe left on a free transfer to Kaizer Chiefs having signed a pre-contract in January. Jamie Webber also joined Sekhukhune United as a free agent.

“We lost our most effective weapon from last season, Maseko and he has gone there (Sundowns). We lost Patrick to Pirates and TT (Ditlhokwe) to Chiefs,” said Hunt who expects another raid for their top performers.

“We came third but never built on the third place. We broke it (team) down and then we dismantled it try again. I’ve got an 18-year-old (Ime Okon) playing centre-back and he was brilliant. Tyson (Thulani Hlatshwayo) is out, (Siyanda) Xulu is out and (Siphesihle) Ndlovu out and those are big players for us.

“It happened to me the first time I was here so it’s nature of the beast. We can’t afford to keep players if they get offered money like that. It’s the nature of the game and I think it’s only going to get worse. They’ll be one or two gone at the end of the year, it’s more than likely,” added Hunt.

SuperSport have also qualified for the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup where they have been drawn against Lybian side Al-Hilal Benghazi and Future FC of Egypt. USM Alger, who the defending champions compete Group A.

“We will go into Africa with kids because the most important thing is our league status,” Hunt said.

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“That’s how I feel, we need to protect that and how do we protect that? SuperSport got to the final of Confederation Cup six years and they should have been relegated. 

“They went into the continent and they got hurt so you have to be careful when you play on the continent because we don’t have the ammunition.

“In Botswana, I played all the kids and we drew 1-1. We came here and I played a better team and we won so we are going to have to do that because we can’t survive, not with our team, it’s not good enough to go across all fronts.”