Rulani tells why he lured Freese to Wydad

Wydad Athletic Club coach Rulani Mokwena has explained what influenced his decision to hire Allan Freese to join his technical team.

Mokwena was granted the freedom to assemble his technical team and wasted no time by bringing along a trusted group of experts he previously worked with like Sinethemba Badela assistant coach, Sibusiso Mahlangu as fitness trainer and Sibusiso Makitla a performance analyst.

Freese is a technical director and worked with Mokwena back in their days at the now-defunct Silver Stars. They have now reunited at Wydad.

"Look, I think you see it with many coaches now. I remember Erik Ten Hag at Manchester United, he had someone more senior, someone more experienced than him," Mokwena explained to the SA Football Journalist Association (Safja) in a Zoom conference from Morocco on Thursday.

"Coach Allan Freese is no stranger to football. I think he has incredible success not only as a football player but also as a coach. I had the privilege and honour to work with him in my early days as a coach at Silver Stars ... way back.

"Just the other day we were speaking about our memories of working at Silver Stars and some of the things that we have gone through. And when the opportunity arose, I thought to myself that sometimes when you are a little bit younger, you need some experience around you.

"As I said, coach Allan comes from an incredible pedigree. He is a very experienced coach and he is a great man. He has won a lot of trophies also, so you also need that.

"You need people who know how to win, but also people who work with players that are up and coming. If I look at the project that I need to do, he fits the bill well and he was available too.

"I'm looking forward to experiencing a lot of ideas and the things that he has to contribute and so far so good."

Mokwena also added that they needed someone with experience in football and Freese ticked all the boxes.

"With the young technical team, sometimes we need experience around us to help us navigate some of the difficulties, and as I said, his record speaks for himself. He has developed some great players in the past," he said.

"There were a couple of other people I thought about, and it was not easy to bring them on board and I'm happy he was available to join us for the project."

Mokwena also emphasised that there is still a huge chance for Bongani Zungu to join the club. He, however, refused to comment on their interest in Al Ahly player Percy Tau, who has been linked with the Moroccan giants. 

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