Tinkler calls for top guns to now allow Sundowns to “walk away with the league” again

By Ayanda Nyuswa

Cape Town City head coach Eric Tinkler has called for PSL top guns to play catch up and not allow Mamelodi Sundowns to “walk away with the league” once again. City kicked off the season with a frustrating 1-1 draw away to Royal AM in the opening match of the 2024/25 Betway Premiership season on Saturday.

Tinkler, who returned to Harry Gwala Stadium where he enjoyed a good spell with the now defunct Maritzburg United, was visibly annoyed with his teams’ performance, especially in the second half, as they failed to keep John Maduka’s men at bay after going a goal up in the first half. New signing Prins Tijueza hit the ground running in City colours scoring the opening goal just 8 minutes into the new campaign. A dominant Royal AM second half performance saw Motebang Sera score an impressive volley to rescue the home side from the jaws of defeat.

“It is what it is, we ended up throwing away 2 points. First 15 minutes we should’ve been 3-0 up 4-0 up, halftime we should be 3-0 4-0 up, game should be over. You become casual, you talk about it at halftime and the response is exactly the same so for me it was 15 minutes of potentially good football and the rest was atrocious,” said Tinkler speaking to the media after the match.

The Citizens made over 10 new signings in the off season, 5 of them making their debuts against Royal AM, with the aim of improving on the 5th place finish from the previous campaign. Reflecting on this season’s targets, Tinkler says his troops will focus more on challenging for the league, and called the PSL top guns, Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs, Supersport United and Stellenbosch FC to close the gap on Sundowns.

“If you wanna be competing for the top 4 you have to be competing for the league. What we can’t allow is for Sundowns to walk away with the league the way they have been walking away with the league every season. It’s not only us as Cape Town City it’s Orlando Pirates, it’s Chiefs, Supersport, Stellies, we all got to play catch up. They (Sundowns) are on another level.”

Tinkler believes it will take time Manqoba Mngqithi, who took the reigns from Rulani Mokwena at the end of last season, to get the players to gel properly, but still expects Sundowns to be the team to beat.

“I still see them as being a very pressing team. Coaches come with different ideas, different mentalities, but obviously there’s certain aspects about how they play that you don’t want to change. I don’t think he (Manqoba) has changed that, maybe personnel, and it’s about personnel now gelling and getting a better understanding of each other. It depends happen overnight, everybody just assumes you sign 5 or 6 players, tomorrow they are gonna click, it doesn’t work like that it takes time. And what does he have there? He has abundance of talent and now it’s just finding  the right combination. Rulani had that combination for how many years that he was there, you understand. Manqoba has now taken over he has his own ideas, it takes time,” Tinkler concluded.