Orlando Pirates recall all on-loan players, coach to assess them

All the players that were sent out on loan this past season by Orlando Pirates  have returned to the club for pre-season training, says an insider at the club.

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Pirates retuned for pre-season sessions this week ahead of the 2021/22 season.

Gladwin Shitolo and Mthokozisi Dube who were loaned out to Golden Arrows headline the Bucs returnees, which also also include Justice Chabalala who was at Bloemfontein Celtic as well as Tebogo Tlolane following his second loan stint with Maritzburg United.

With the players back at the club along with the new players, the source says at the moment, nothing is guaranteed on which players will be kept by the team as they look to improve from last season and reveals that there will certainly be a number of players who won’t be part of the team after assessments this week.

“It’s common for players to return to their parent club for pre-season after training. The technical team has to take a look at them and see if they can add value in whatever they are trying to build for next season. It’s not like they were not monitoring them while they were on loans.

“From time to time the coaches would be monitoring their progress, but you know it wasn’t that easy because we had a short and very busy season. It’s all about making sure that there will be right combinations and having enough personnel in positions and more than enough. By the second or third week the coaches will have made their decisions on who is staying and who will be going. Another thing is that there are also players who might join the team soon, so, that also has to be considered before making any decisions,” said the source. 

Orlando Pirates announced four new signings into their squad namely Kwanda Mngonyama and Bandile Shandu from Maritzburg , Goodman Mosele from Baroka FC and Free State Stars striker Monnapule Saleng.