‘We still ambitious’, says Tembo on budding, lukewarm Matsatsantsa

In the last two seasons, you may have been led to believe that SuperSport United are not an ambitious side given their tame performance in the DStv Premiership, their failure to win domestic cups and letting go of key players. But head coach Kaitano Tembo wants to debunk that perception, suggesting that his youthful side are hungry for success and this weekend, they will put their money where their mouth is.

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“We have been building and that comes with a lot of inconsistency because when you have a  lot of youngsters you have to expect that. But it does not mean that we are less ambitious. We still want to win trophies. We have been in finals in the last three years, except last season and this time around, we want to go all out and have an opportunity to finish with silverware,” said Tembo.

“There has been a lot of transformation from the club and in terms of the approach. Three seasons before this, we had an experienced team and we went out there and competed aggressively in the market and on the field. But now a lot of players have left the club. I can talk about players like Thuso Phala, “Yeye”, Morgan Gould, Bongani Khumalo, Dean Furman, Clayton Daniels, and if we look at it now, we have tried to give players from our own academy and already this season we have already lost Teboho Mokoena, Grant Kekana and Aubrey Modiba last year,” Tembo added.

Matsatsantsa A Pitori take on Platinum City Rovers in the last-16 of the Nedbank Cup and the United mentor insists that he will not let go of the last opportunity to get his hands on silverware this season. With most of his superstars having long departed, Tembo is banking on rejuvenating Sipho Mbule, who recently made his return from injury after a lengthy lay off.

“He is a talented youngster and it is our duty to try and help him and to guide him so that he is not lost to South African football. His response has been very good and his attitude at training has been very good. He is just lacking a bit with match fitness but it will only happen when he plays more but we will try to build his match fitness gradually because we don’t want to push him too hard. We are quite happy with his progress so far and very soon we will start to see the real Sipho Mbule that we all know,” said Tembo.