Clayton Daniels, the current Cape Town Spurs captain, has weighed in on the technical team changes at his former club, Mamelodi Sundowns, as well as giving a reaction to the 5-0 backlash on his last DStv Premiership club Maritzburg United.
A response was certainly needed after Kaboyellow was eliminated out of the MTN 8 by a re-emerging Orlando Pirates side, under the mentorship of Jose Riveiro. As a result of this, Downs made a shock change, leaving everyone a bit confused by the reshuffling of their coaches. The immediate aftermath of this was that Sundowns then went out and thumped the Team of Choice by five goals to nil.
“I don’t think anything changes much for me, because they are all still at the same club, they are all still gonna work for Mamelodi Sundowns,” Daniels told This Is Football. Africa.
“The only thing that is gonna change is the positioning in the media, I don’t think off the field at the club is gonna be any different. The voice has not changed, as well as your knowledge of the game. It doesn’t change overnight, if they went to another club maybe ja then you can say there is a reshuffling, yes there’s changes. They still have the same approach, all of them are good coaches, and maybe just a media thing for me. He’s (Rulani Mokwena) more talkative, he’s more the one that is gonna do the talking and we all know how he talks. He can talk for hours.”
Clayton Daniels, who many remember as an Ajax Cape Town product, in fact was not developed at Ikamva because he only joined them at the age of 19, having spent most of his days playing for a LFA club called Riverside Rangers in Elsies River, Cape Town. But he eventually joined the academy from Clyde Pinelands, after numerous previous attempts to recruit him.
“ You know 5-0, that is a good reaction after being knocked out of the cup,”Clayton continued.
“We want that sort of reaction, but unfortunately for Maritzburg it doesn’t look so good. Sundowns is a top team and they always gonna dominate certain games, well good for them because they have the players to perform at that level week in and week out.”
“I keep an eye out for players from Cape Town for obvious reasons,” Daniels is referring to the likes of Rushine De Reuck and Haashim Domingo who are at Chloorkop. Daniels took time to define what makes them great, and what he looks for in a player when assessing their performances.
“In general when I look at players over the games, I look at their character, and how their mentality is, especially mentality because you are on a successful team. So are you still hungry, do you still have the desire to perform week in and week out. Those are the things I’m looking at because everyone can perform, but can they do it consistently.”
