Saturday saw SuperSport United striker Bradley Grobler give credit to Mamelodi Sundowns for their smart spending. The DStv Premiership champions are on their way to winning a sixth consecutive league title, with some believing that they are dominating solely for financial reasons.
Grobler, however, feels the team should be credited for the work they put in behind the scenes to identify players they want to bring into the squad. He said to the Siya crew, “At the end of the day, it is a money thing, but I don’t think we can hold that against Sundowns. Sometimes it’s good to see a team that puts money into the club and believes in the club. One thing I respect about Sundowns is that they identify players and they do whatever they can, to get that player, and it’s a player that goes on to do extremely well for the club. Who are we to tell them that they can’t spend their money? They put money into football and it’s made the team unbelievably good and successful. It’s hard to lose your best players to them, but they have the money to spend. They have used it very well. Big ups to them.”
The last few seasons have seen Sundowns snap up Aubrey Modiba, Grant Kekana, Teboho Mokoena, Ronwen Williams and Sipho Mbule from SuperSport. All these players have made progress at Sundowns, taking their game to another level at Chloorkop.
Grobler added, “Sundowns have gotten a lot of players from us, who were already extremely good players. I think since they’ve moved there, they have possibly grown and now you see that they are going to win another league (title) and they have an opportunity to go into Africa and play at that level. There is no doubt that some of the guys have gone there and taken their game to a new level. If I look at guys like Tebza and Ronza, they have been unbelievable this season. A guy like Grant as well. They have done extremely well for themselves and, like I say, Sundowns have done well in what they have done with their money.”