Why free-spending Sundowns are holding back a little this season

Mamelodi Sundowns had a squad of about 35 players last season and they are looking to keep the number around the same in the new campaign.

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With Sibusiso Vilakazi and George Maluleka already out of Chloorkop after joining AmaZulu and TS Galaxy respectively, the club have so far only added Sipho Mbule and Abubaker Nasir to their arsenal.

“We are very happy with the team that we have and the days of seeing about eight signings at Sundowns are over. There’s probably three more to come through the door, nothing more than that,” said Downs co-head coach Rulani Mokwena.

“We try to sign in relation to the needs of the team and now we are trying to sign according to how we want to play this season. We did a bit of work in the last two seasons and we brought in some good players which we feel have set a good foundation for the team,” he added.

Mbule is a former SuperSport United player who made in his mark on the African stage in the form of the Caf Confederation Cup in 2017 when Matsatsantsa A Pitori reached the final and lost to TP Mazembe. In this way, his adaptation process should be a smooth one compared to that of Nasir.

However, Mokwena revealed that the Ethiopian forward has made good strides.

“Nasir is a player who was already with us last year when we had a mid-season break and he went back home,” Mokwena explained.

He continued: “In the process, we assisted him with an English tutor and pleasantly, upon his return, a lot of the communication he has had with his teammates and the rest of the team was in English and we are very happy because that also fastracks the integration and adaptation process.

“We are looking forward to him settling and getting a better understanding about how we play.”