Mokwena sheds light on Motupa, Erasmus’ situation at Sundowns

Mamelodi Sundowns’ co-head coach Rulani Mokwena has lifted the lid on the situation of out-of -favour strikers, Kermit Erasmus and Gift Motupa, who are understood to be on their way out of Mamelodi Sundowns.

Motupa joined Masandawana after he was left without a home when Bidvest Wits sold their status, while Erasmus joined the defending DStv Premiership champions from Cape Town City – a club that Downs have a good relationship with in the transfer market.

Over two seasons, Motupa has made about 12 appearances and scored a single goal, while Erasmus played over half of the league games in his maiden season before making 14 appearances last season in all competitions.

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“These things happen in football. I saw Gabriel Jesus moving from Manchester City to Arsenal and Barcelona bought Zlatan Ibrahimovic and he did the best that he could then they sent him away. Romelu Lukaku was at Chelsea from Inter Milan and unfortunately it didn’t work out,” said Mokwena.

“When it happens, it does not say that the move was wrong and it does not profile the player in any way. We all know the qualities that Gift and Kermit have and for as long as they are still part of the team, we will do our best to support and help them.

“We will still believe and trust in them to give us an output like all the other players, while they are still here, we love them and we continue to show them support and appreciation,” Mokwena added.

Meanwhile, Sundowns beat Golden Arrows 2-1 on Saturday night to build up on their 1-0 win over Chippa United.

“It’s good to get the three points because when you win games you get more confidence. It was a hard fought for result and congratulations to the players and the coaches. We showed good grafting and good work ethic and I think we deserved the victory,” said Mokwena.

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Mokwena’s colleague, Manqoba Mngqithi once lamented the reinforced defensive blocks that teams employ against Sundowns and Mokwena reiterated that trend from the opposition.

“The challenge that we have now is that we are responsible for the intensity of the game and those games are very difficult when one team of the two is responsible for that,” said Mokwena.

He added: “The last four games we’ve played, we had teams coming to disrupt and then it becomes a little bit difficult to have a football match and then it looks like Sundowns are not playing well. But the reality is that we are the only ones trying to have a football,” said Mokwena.”