Another transfer window has delivered bruising blows to Soweto giants Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs to the point their coaches sounded utterly defeated this week.

Both Mandla Ncikazi and Stuart Baxter appeared to throw in the towel as they publicly accepted their teams may not have the same resources to keep track with Mamelodi Sundowns who, again, emerged with the biggest fish from the midseason transfer window.

Sounding completely hopeless when addressing the media at the Nedbank Cup launch, Baxter bemoaned how his side would always come second best, were they have to jostle for the same player with Sundowns. “They [Sundowns] have all the trump cards,” the Amakhosi coach said.

His Pirates colleague Ncikazi wasn’t so openly defeatist, but was equally desolate as he lamented the fact they couldn’t beef up their squad in the past month. “Personally, I would have loved to have certain players. But we respect the process within the club on how they do things,” Ncikazi said.

It is a fact that Sundowns would, more often than not, outbid any of their rivals if they were to chase the same player, but this is not a new phenomenon.

Still, Sundowns’ financial muscle wasn’t able to prevent Pirates from winning the famed double treble between 2010 and 2012. Chiefs were also able to wrestle two league titles from Downs’ grasp between 2013 and 2015.

What has changed since, however, is the recruitment policies of all three clubs, with the latter two deteriorating, and Sundowns keeping to the values bequeathed the club by Pitso Mosimane’s rich legacy.

Whereas in the past Sundowns would sign players for the sake of it, there was a massive shift in the thinking when Mosimane was at the helm for eight years. Most of their recruitment has now been on a needs basis, with proper assessment and analysis going into getting the correct players who fit into their structure.

Sure, there have been let-downs, and some players have simply not clicked, such as Jeremy Brockie and Aubrey Ngoma. But more often than not, they have got the most out of their new players.

Over at the Soweto giants, it has been largely haphazard recruitment of expensive misfits which left you questioning the two clubs’ immediate vision.

The instability on the benches of the two sides – Chiefs have had six coaching changes in the past six years, while Pirates have had seven – has not helped establish a clear blueprint that can be followed at either club.

As a consequence, player recruitment is delegated elsewhere inside the club, while the buck stops with the coaching staff when it comes to results. It is a model that worked a decade ago, before Mosimane’s revolution at Sundowns, but it clearly won’t pass today.

The Soweto giants will have to adapt quickly or watch as the PSL degenerates further into a one-horse procession. The “big two” cannot play victim and cry over “limited resources”, whereas they are able to pay some of the highest salaries in the land.

Chiefs got Khama Billiat and Leo Castro directly from Sundowns on expiry of their contracts, while Pirates beat Sundowns to the signatures of Deon Hotto and Tyson Hlatshwayo, among other players. So the claim Downs have “all the trump cards” is mischievous.

Rather than feel unfairly brutalised by Sundowns’ financial “dictatorship”, Chiefs and Pirates should look within and devise workable ways to stop the monotonous hegemony. Their coaches openly throwing in the towel months before the season ends didn’t inspire confidence, sadly.