Tinkler bemoans star players' exodus

Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler says he would love to keep some of his best players, but he can't stop his bosses from selling them.

In the past few years, the Citizens have lost key players to rivals like Bradley Ralani, Kermit Erasmus, Craig Martin and Terrence Mashego, and they are likely to lose Mduduzi Mdantsane, Khanyisa Mayo and Thabo Nodada, who have all been linked with an exit at the end of the season.

Tinkler feels should he keep some of these, in two years' time his team can be stronger than now.

“We want to keep majority of the squad we currently have because we know that if we can keep it together... in a year or two we can be a lot stronger than what we are now,” Tinkler said after their goalless draw with Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday.

“But I understand no player is not for sale if an offer comes, I can't blame the club for selling because ultimately it benefits the football club.

“The club ... when I joined in the first season, we didn't even have a field to train on. Now we have a field in Hartleyvale. Our Diski team have a field, before, they had to go to Gugulethu because they couldn't find training facilities.

“With players who have moved on to bigger clubs, we've managed to move to Hartleyvale to build that artificial pitch. We want to build a clubhouse, accommodation for the young players and all of that comes with money.”

Following their draw against Sundowns, Tinkler highlighted the importance of collecting more points in their remaining six matches and maintain a place in the top four in the DStv Premiership table.

The Citizens will host AmaZulu at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday at 3pm.

“Every single match is going to be a fight, but we need to believe that we can try to achieve that top four position which was what we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season and we have that opportunity still available because we still have to play Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.

“Those become six pointers, so it is important what we do at home against AmaZulu now. That game we must ensure we collect maximum points and move on to the next one.”