Mayo has no intention of leaving Citizens, insists Tinkler

After Khanyisa Mayo signed a new five-year deal with Cape Town City despite interest from Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns, coach Eric Tinkler insists the striker had no intention of leaving as he asked to stay on.

Mayo has been in red-hot form for the Citizens since joining them from Richards Bay two years ago, scoring 18 goals in 62 appearances.

Last season, he finished as the joint DStv Premiership top goal scorer with Peter Shalulile on 12, and that attracted interest from both Chiefs and Sundowns.

“The club signed a new five-year deal with Mayo. In fact, he is the one who came and said 'I don’t want to go anywhere',” Tinkler explained to the media.

“That’s why people are asking me and I’m saying there is no situation with Mayo, he told us he is not going anywhere. Losing Mduduzi Mdantsane (to Chiefs) was tough because of the quality that he possessed.

“It’s a big opportunity for him to go to Chiefs. It’s a club that he loved to have played for, so we were not going to stand in his way.

“We don’t stand in the way of players bettering their futures, so we give them that opportunity.

“But our expectation ... is to ensure that we have a strong squad. What we don’t want is to find ourselves outside the top eight, so it helps to build our squad by keeping most of the players. We only brought two players and we’ve not made massive changes to our squad.”

City were not busy in the market, having bought Tshegofatso Nyama and Angolan striker Jó Paciência. Tinkler has been impressed with both players’ attitude at training...

“Nyama has been very good so far in pre-season, very happy with the signing, a good hard-working boy,” he said.

“He reminds me of Terrence Mashego in terms of his work ability, his work ethic and we are seeing a lot of improvement in terms of him understanding what our expectations are.”

Meanwhile, Golden Arrows announced their new partnership with international betting company 10Bets yesterday at Moses Mabhida stadium.