The loss of key players over the past 18 months seems to be at the heart of Cape Town City’s current problems, as their downward spiral continues unabated.
City took leave of key players like Mduduzi Mdantsane (94 caps), Khanyisa Mayo (50), and Keanu Cupido (116), and their absence has left a significant gap that the club has struggled to fill. The poor results during the early season raised concerns about the club’s capacity to contend effectively in the league this season.
During the off-season, City chairman John Comitis was a busy man. He made a host of signings to bolster the squad. It was one of the most active transfer windows in the Premier Soccer League, as City aimed to fill the void left by the departing talents.
Retired Cape Town Spurs midfielder Michael Morton, who has over 250 Premiership appearances while playing for Bidvest Wits, Maritzburg United, SuperSport United, and AmaZulu, is now a football analyst. He has been keeping an eye on local soccer and has been an admirer of City.
“It is a fantastic football club with great people in it and a good support base in Cape Town. It’s absolutely vital that they stay in the PSL and avoid relegation,” said Morton. “Whatever the guys have to do, let’s hope they do it and survive.”
At the start of the season, Morton said City looked like a club that would dominate the upper echelons of the Premiership standings this season.
“At the beginning of the season, I thought they had a balanced squad. I ranked them as a team I thought would finish in the top four or five places. I thought they looked strong,” said Morton.
“But looking back now, throughout the season, it seems they didn’t have the firepower they needed. They didn’t have goal scorers up front.
“Selling Mayo took away a lot of their goal-scoring threats. They looked underpowered, and Mdantsane was a big loss as well. With these players, they lost a lot of their goals.”
In January, City fired their coach Eric Tinkler, who had been at the helm for three seasons. However, the team continued with a string of poor results. He was replaced by the highly experienced Muhsin Ertugral, who also struggled to steer the ship to safer waters.
“There was a question of players being used correctly. I think the main issue was they had multiple coaches this season. It calls for changing and adapting to different playing styles, in line with the different coaches’ instructions,” said Morton. “It hasn’t been easy at all from that point of view for the players.”
Losing (defender) Cupido in January as well was a massive blow, but again, I don’t think the problems lie at the back. I think the problems are more in terms of goal-scoring and chance creation.”
“Once they lost Eric and then the Ertugral move didn’t work, he wasn’t supposed to coach because he came in as technical director for the following season. City could not have predicted things to go so wrong.”
“It’s down to the senior players and everybody else to try to pull together to get that club over the line.”
