SuperSport United chief executive officer Stan Matthews revealed on SAfm’s Sport On show on Thursday evening that Teboho Mokoena’s move away from Matsatsantsa a Pitori could have happened at the beginning of this season.
However, Matsatsantsa decided to hold on to the Bethlehem-born midfielder until they released him to join Mamelodi Sundowns on Thursday.
“Teboho could have made this move in August, but we blocked it because we still needed him. But now we thought it was the right time to release him,” Matthews revealed.
“We’ll probably finish in the top four. So he must go and win trophies. He will win his first trophy in a few months.”
The Matsatsantsa boss insisted that releasing the 25-year-old Mokoena to the Brazilians was the right decision.
“It was the right thing to do for us. Teboho had one year left on his contract. We couldn’t lose him for free at the end of the season. Also, we couldn’t match the offers that were coming from here and Europe,” Matthews said on SAfm.
“We could have taken less money and claimed a feather in our cap, saying we sold a player to Europe. There was some interest from Europe, but the one offer was €200 000 less than his buy-out clause. Even Teboho wasn’t happy with that. He told us which offer was attractive to him and we had to make the right deal for the player. We have no problems in selling our players to the big three because we know that we can’t compete with them financially.”
Matthews also revealed that they’re not happy with how their midfielder Sipho Mbule conducts himself thus they have decided not to sell him amid interest from Kaizer Chiefs.
“Sipho’s conduct has not been great, unlike Tebza and he knows it, too. So we can’t reward that behaviour. In terms of his discipline, we are not happy,” Matthews remarked.
“We love Sipho, he’s a great talent, there was interest in him. But he has to do better. You can’t be lapped by your teammates in training. He came back 5kg overweight after Christmas and that’s just not good enough.”
Meanwhile, Matthews further revealed that they might lose their Gqeberha-born captain Ronwen Williams in future.
“But we will probably take out the tissues box and wipe our tears for Ronwen. He will eventually move. He has been here since he was a kid and has been a great servant. So his time will come, but it’s all up to him, when he is ready to move,” he said.
