However misguided it seemed, Jabu Mahlangu’s rant over Mamelodi Sundowns’ dominance of the domestic league was an important contribution to a debate that SA football fans should inevitably have long had.

Sundowns will in a matter of weeks wrap up a sixth championship in a row, further entrenching ours as a one-team league with no other clubs emerging to compete at the same level as the Rulani Mokwena-coached team.

The signs that we may be headed towards what in football circles is known as a “farmers’ league” – a competition where the winners are identified even before the ball is kicked – have been there for some time.

But to attribute Sundowns’ success solely to financial muscle – as Mahlangu did in his video rant posted on social media – is unfair on the people who set Downs on the path to be this dominant today.

It is a known fact that despite Patrice Motsepe’s investment in the team two decades ago, the Brazilians were not always this productive on the field. They had a trophy here and there, big-profile coaches and equally big-name players, but it was Pitso Mosimane’s December 2012 revolution which lifted them from the doldrums to the formidable force they are now.

Mokwena and his technical team not only inherited a squad who had won three championships in a row when Mosimane left in 2020; they also got a team steeped in a  winning culture, which had to adapt to a new way of doing things like spending Christmas in a foreign country to fulfil a CAF Champions League fixture.

Sundowns’ success has also been built around a strong succession planning, with some senior players being ushered out of the team and replaced at the right time. No one thought Denis Onyango would be second choice to Ronwen Williams today, whereas Kaizer Chiefs still live with the false hope that Itumeleng Khune would perform as he did in 2013.

Sundowns do splash money, sometimes needlessly so, but their competitors are not helped by a confused transfer policy. Orlando Pirates probably have made the most signings over the past three years, but are these aligned to the requirements of their technical team?

Chiefs, too, have signed haphazardly over the past few years, using the method of enticing out-of-contract players who would come at huge salaries. Their recent signing of Thatayaone Ditlhokwe from SuperSport United is a perfect example. But suppose Ditlhokwe gets there and doesn’t prove an immediate hit – like Njabulo Ngcobo and lately the increasingly error-prone Zitha Kwinika – who really is to blame for that?

Contrast that with Sundowns, where Khuliso Mudau can leave Black Leopards and improve to become a Bafana international.

To catch up with Downs, their competitors will need a vision, a solid plan and recruitment drives should be aligned to that plan. New players have to fit into the team, otherwise you will have misalignments as we’ve seen when Thulani Hlatshwayo arrived at Pirates a Bafana captain, only to become a bit-part player and released later.

Hlatshwayo is now rediscovering his old form at SuperSport, an indication the Pirates move was totally against his progress. The question is: would he have failed had he joined Sundowns?

Sundowns winning six titles in succession indeed makes ours a predictable, “boring” league, but no amount of howling and pontificating will stop their dominance. In fact I would be surprised if we don't become like the German Bundesliga, where Bayern have won the past 11 league titles.