Ouaddou opens up about ‘difficult moments’ with Maswanganyi

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has admitted that his relationship with Patrick Maswanganyi was not always the best during their time at the club.

On Monday, Pirates confirmed that an agreement has been reached with Bahrain Premier League side Alkhaldiya Sports Club for the transfer of Maswanganyi.

“I have huge respect for this player, the titles he won, he’s a fantastic player, a gifted player, every coach would want to have him in their team,” Ouaddou told reporters in Orlando.

“I think we had a difficult moment last season because he takas a little bit of time to understand what I was expecting from him about his involvement in the game, involvement in training. And I always said that the job doesn’t start during the game.

“I was not happy with how he was training but I was happy how he came from 24th June, fantastic behaviour, fresh, in every training, full of energy every training. You all saw his potential at the start of the season, it was very important, he was very important.

“If he had listened to me last season he would have gone to the World Cup, definitely. Now, I want to wish him all the best for his new project, he is going abroad, it is not easy.”

Ouaddou wishes Tito well in Bahrain

Ouaddou added that Maswanganyi will need a strong mentality to succeed in Bahrain.

“He will have to be strong mentally especially in that area (Bahrain) because I played (Qatar) close to that country.

“There are no supporters like us here in South Africa, the stadiums are empty but even if there are no supporters there is huge pressure from the club owners who ask a lot from the players, especially professional players.

“I hope he will find joy there because he is someone that I was happy to work with especially this season, he was somebody important for us in the middle,” commented Ouaddou.