SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo says appointing long-serving goalkeeper Ronwen Williams as the club's new captain was an easy decision.

Williams will replace Dean Furman‚ who is returning to the UK at the end of the season after six years at a club where he won three major trophies and also established himself as one of the pillars of the Bafana Bafana defensive midfielder.

“He (Ronwen) will take over from Dean and to be honest it was an easy decision‚” said Tembo.

“He has been with the club for a very long time and he was Dean’s deputy since I took over as coach. He has done very well for the club and for himself and he is one of the goalkeepers for the national team.

"He is a young man who carries himself very well and he has very good leadership qualities. He is a true professional who commands respect from his team-mates and leads by example.”

Though Tembo is confident that Williams is the right man to lead‚ he conceded that replacing a player of Furman’s caliber is not going to be easy.

“It is not going to be an easy task to replace someone like Dean because he has a huge influence on most of our younger players like Teboho Mokoena and Sipho Mbule‚" he said.

"Most of the younger players look up to him because he always does the right things and never gets himself into trouble. We are definitely going to miss him.

"He served this club with distinction and he made his mark.”

The responsibility of taking over the midfield duties will fall on the lap of Mokoena‚ Mbule‚ Jamie Webber and to a less extent‚ Jesse Donn. Tembo is challenging them to stand up and be counted.

“This is an opportunity for some of the younger players in our group to step up and work closely with Ronwen to lead this team‚"he said.

"We have a good balance of experience and youth.

"Some of the experienced players like Clayton Daniels‚ Onismor Bhasera‚ Thamsanqa Gabuza and Bongni Khumalo will play their role as part of the leadership group and guide the youth.

"It is also important that some of our younger players must take responsibility in involving themselves so that we have a bigger pool of leaders in the team.”