This was a difficult decision - Mpatane
Larona Makhaiza | Tuesday September 3, 2024 16:33
Mpatane was on the bench for the second time at Chiefs when they lost 3-2 to other FNB Premiership returnees, Extension Gunners, in a friendly match played on Saturday afternoon. He said he hopes he does not live to regret the choice he made. “It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life you know, leaving Eleven Angels coming here but it was worth it because Eleven Angels will benefit a lot from me coming to Centre Chiefs,” he said. Mpatane, who was at the helm when Eleven Angels relegated to First Division, said it did not take too much of convincing as the vision of the team amused him and made it easier for him to join the former Premier League giants. “We will be partnering with Prestige as Centre Chiefs and the president Jimmy Kereng, is a really good man.
He stated what he wanted and told me his vision and I thought it is a good vision and I wanted to be part of that more so that this is one of the biggest clubs in the country,” he said. After playing in the lower division for the past three seasons, Mpatane indicated that people should not expect miracles from them but should know that the club will not just add numbers in the FNB Premiership. He said the team will compete and will not be walkovers. “This is a newly assembled team of 25 players and they are all new, so what we want is to maybe to maintain a top eight position because we have good players and we have acquired a good couple of them. Once they gel we are good to go,” Mpatane said. He added: “We do not want to pressurise ourselves by saying anything that will not happen so our target now is top eight. We are new in the league and it will be great to finish in the top eight,” he said.
With less than three weeks until the 2024/2025 season commences, the head coach for the Peleng giants, Tshepo Motlhabankwe, stated that Gunners are still assembling and the emphasis is on boosting their attacking prowess. “We have not arrived where we want to be. We still need three or four new players, experienced for that matter. In these three or more players, we really need a striker who will get us the goals,” Motlhabankwe said. Meanwhile, Motlhabankwe stated that Gunners will have one target only as they return to the elite league, which is to survive the chop to lower division. “When you are from the First Division, the first thing you think is to avoid relegation. So, we will survive relegation after that we will then see what are our new targets are. But we really need to put Gunners where it was before and we are working on that,” he said.