Tembo urges Mbule to put Olympics disappointment behind him

The disappointment was almost tangible when Sipho Mbule’s name was withdrawn from the Under-23 squad that took to Tokyo for the Olympic Games.

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Mbule was, together with Fargrie Lakay, Lyle Foster, Abbubaker Mobara and Keletso Makgalwa, were dropped from the Olympics squad for medical reasons.

The build-up to the global spectacle had a few potholes, one of those, as Phakaaathi understands, was that head coach David Notaone allegedly wanted to leave behind Kaizer Chiefs Nkosingiphile Ngcobo but the South African Football Association did not give that thought any time of day as they wanted their best players in the tournament.

South Africa bombed out of Group A after failing to register a single win against hosts Japan, France and Mexico.

Meanwhile, Mbule was heartbroken after his exclusion from the squad but his coach at SuperSport told him to snap out of it and focus on the season ahead.   

“It was a stage set up for a player like Mbule and it was frustrating for him to not go and showcase his talent at a stage like that and as a club were also frustrated because he is our player and we need him to put this past him and focus on the new season because we need him, there is still a lot of football to play. Mbule is at training and he is doing quite well and I am really happy with his attitude and his frame of mind at the moment,” Tembo told Phakaaathi.

Tembo took some time to reflect on last season’s performance where the team started like a house on fire, flirting with a possible threat to eventual champions Mamelodi Sundowns, but ended up finishing fifth.

“We have all learnt from the previous season when we did our analysis and our assessments for the previous season and we know that we had a very good start and then we had challenges along the way through the season. We lost our most influential players at a crucial time so we have to look at how we can keep them fit, especially our regulars,” said the Matsatsantsa A Pitori mentor.

Tembo claims that the absence of his potent forwards owed to his team’s struggles.   

“At some point we had Gabuza and Bradley out and between them they have contributed close to 25 goals and if you have those players out for close to six or seven games, that is a lot. We will try and manage the team a little different and see how we navigate this time around.

“Managing them physically is going to be an issue that we can always look at but sometimes some there is nothing you can do with some of the injuries because it is a contact sport and anything can always happen.”