Cricket Rugby Soccer Sport news so fresh, its live!

February 14, 2025
Search
Football CAF Champions League Mamelodi Sundowns

Rulani Keen To Bolster Squad In Pursuit Of CAFCL Spot

  • January 13, 2025
  • 3 min read
  • 124 Views
Rulani Keen To Bolster Squad In Pursuit Of CAFCL Spot

Wydad Athletic Club coach Rulani Mokwena is eager to beef up his squad in the January transfer window in a bid to strengthen their chances of qualifying for the CAF Champions League next season after the club missed out on the current campaign.

Mokwena, who took over the hot seat during the off-season, has been tasked with returning the sleeping Moroccan giants to their former glory following a dismal sixth-place finish in the Botola Pro League last season.

Despite an indifferent start to the 2024/25 term and inconsistent results, the Red Castle is four points behind a Champions League spot and a point shy of a CAF Confederations Cup place after making it back-to-back wins with a 2-1 victory over Union Touarga Sport on Sunday.

With the club heavily linked with Young African duo Stephane Aziz Ki and Clement Mzize, the former Mamelodi Sundowns mentor sees the transfer window as an opportunity to bring in quality players but acknowledges that some teams may not be willing to part ways with their prized assets.

“The mercato [transfer window] is very important for us, it’s a difficult window because you have to try to improve the team and get players that have got game rhythm. Players that are playing, that’s very important,” said Mokwena.

“And not a lot of clubs want to release players that are playing and are important for them. Number two, we have to get players that are better than what we already have and already we’ve got very good players.

“I don’t think our problems are defensive per se because I think that we have challenges that are a little bit deeper than that and that’s something that the club is going to have to work very hard to resolve.” 

The 22-time Moroccan champions have somewhat built a reputation of snatching points at the death and salvaging draws in the latter stages of the match, but Mokwena cautioned that their luck may run out at some point, stressing the need to inject a winning mentality in the squad.

“You will not find me coming here and criticizing the players, but I’ll accept that we have a lot of challenges that we have to improve, and we have to improve fast because at this moment maybe sometimes the reaction of the second half may be too late,” the Wydad coach added.

“So, I told them that I’m tired of being the most passionate person at Wydad, I’m tired of being the only one that’s really pushing and wants people to win, the club to do well. Everybody has got to have this [mentality] because this is a big club, in a big year for the club.

It remains to be seen whether the Casablanca-based outfit will delve deep into the market and back the 38-year-old South African mentor, with Wydad currently in fifth place with 30 points amassed after 18 [W8 D6 L4] league outings.

About Author

Hlayisani Magoro

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *