SuperSport’s Gavin still hunting for more players

With the Premier Soccer League (PSL) transfer window set to close in 17 days time, SuperSport United head coach Gavin Hunt is still throwing a tantrum at Matsatsantsa’s top brass for failing to buy him players, and perhaps their unwillingness to follow a model that worked for Hunt at the now defunct Bidvest Wits.

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“The league is very competitive. There are a few teams that have good squads. It is important for us to be humble because we are going to lose and hopefully we can win more than we lose because we didn’t buy anyone,” said Hunt.

“When Pep Guardiola has a problem with a full-back, he buys one, problem sorted. We don’t have that here, we have to use our youth and try to be a little bit clever in the market. Does it frustrate me? Yes it does but I know that we can leave a footprint here and get closer to the better teams.

“We do need players, we are short. We need a midfielder, a striker because we have two strikers whose careers are coming to an end and we have another one on loan. Do I want to win? Yes, but can we win? I don’t know. We have a team that is young and old so let’s try and get through where we can,” he added.

The four-time league-winning mentor believes there is a way to get some players outside of the constraints of the transfer window, and that is to cast the net wide to look for unattached players.

He used this model with The Students where he got the likes of Thulani Hlathswayo, Danie Klate, Daren Keet, Vincent Pule, Thabang Monare, Sfiso Hlanti, Elias Pelembe all for free.

“We need to be clever in the market because you are not going to get free players like your Morgan Gould, Anthony Laffor, Glen Salmon, you don’t get those types of players for free these days,” said Hunt.

He adds: “When I was at Wits, I had a 25-man squad and we bought only one player, the rest were free, we only bought Buhle Mkhwanazi and went on to win the league. We were clever with how we did things. If you are allowed to do things, you can find the players but it is hard and it takes time.”