Revealed: Why Kaizer Chiefs-bound Hlanti is not playing much at Swallows
Hlanti trained with Amakhosi just before the season started in the hope of signing with the Glamour Boys, but the club were banned from signing players for a season.
Swallows defender Sifiso Hlanti is set to join Kaizer Chiefs next season (Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix)
The reason behind Sifiso Hlanti not being a regular at Swallows FC has been revealed by a reliable source at the Birds.
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The source says that the defender’s pending move to Kaizer Chiefs at the end of the season is a major setback for the club as they want to build a consistent squad, hence the Bafana Bafana international doesn’t feature that much.
Hlanti trained with Amakhosi just before the season started in the hope of signing with the Glamour Boys, but the club were banned from signing players for a season.
The left-back then decided to sign with Swallows. According to the source, the technical team at Swallows have come into realisation that there is no use depending or relying to a player, who is not committed to the club and is looking to secure a future elsewhere.
“I don’t really blame the coach (Brandon Trutter) for not playing him. Thing is, we all know that he (Hlanti) was supposed to sign for Chiefs. Actually, I believe that he signed a pre-contract with them. You will see, at the end of the season he is going to Chiefs. I mean, how does an international player like him not play in all games?
“He is a top player, very talented left-back and any coach would want to have him in their team. I mean, it’s not like he has suffered a major injury or something that’s preventing him to play, it’s just a matter of the coach using players he is guaranteed are going to stick with the team,” said the source.
Meanwhile, Swallows coach Brandon Truter stopped short again of openly blaming Hlanti and Njabulo Ngcobo, who is also believed to be on his way to Chiefs, for their draw against SuperSport United on Tuesday.
Matsatsantsa’s equaliser was scored by Sipho Mbule, who headed home a cross from Keenan Phillips from the right flank.
“I am disappointed that we had three centre-backs on the field and still allowed the free header for the [Mbule] goal. It’s a draw, it’s not nice with the draws that are happening,” said Trutter after the game.
“It is not organisation, it is down to quality maybe. We are organised but one laps of concentration from an individual and we get punished. But this happens in the PSL.”
