Why Sundowns coach Mngithi sees shades of Maritzburg and Leicester in Stellies

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi speaks with great admiration for the model Stellenbosch FC have put in place to be a competitive football club on relatively limited resources. 

Mngqithi cautioned Stellies, who the Brazilians meet in their two-legged MTN8 semifinal at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Wednesday (7.30pm) and Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday, they will need to keep grounded and aware of their stature to keep producing high standards. 

Mngqithi sees shades in Stellies' ability to punch above their weight of the combination he once put together at Lamontville Golden Arrows, steering an exciting combination to a 6-0 triumph in the 2009 MTN8 final against Ajax Cape Town, a result that remains the stuff of folklore. 

He cautions the club it needs to avoid the trap of, in the examples provided by Mngqithi, teams such as Leicester City and Maritzburg United, who got carried away with their successes. 

Billionaire Johann Rupert's involvement in Stellies often leads to the misconception the team buys success. They do not. They work on a tight budget, steered by a stalwart, no-nonsense coach in Steve Barker who signs and scouts cleverly, promotes from an excellent academy and uses a superb facility at Stellenbosch University's High Performance Centre to great effect. 

The flash in the pan that was the bling and excitement of Royal AM's brash entry into the PSL under the ownership of tenderpreneur Shauwn Mkhize caught some imagination for a time. That club has battled to maintain such financial standards, and its flashy “ranch” outside Pietermaritzburg stands in contrast to the measured model in Stellenbosch. 

In terms of the value such structuring can bring to South African football, Mngqithi sounds like a fan. 

“We are playing against a team that is slightly different. It's a team that reminds me a little of my old Golden Arrows team,” he said in the build-up to the semi. 

“Very dangerous off the ball. A team [against whom] you have to always take care of the ball, and make sure that whenever you have possibilities where you could have numerical superiority and punish them, you try to terminate your attacks because if you don't that's where they are very dangerous on counterattacks. Then your rest defence has to always be on point because that's where you are most likely to be caught.” 

Mngqithi, who does work for a club with almost unlimited resources, is clearly a fan of what Barker and Stellies’ administration are cooking in the Cape. He identifies Stellies efficient pipeline — finding the balance between signing players sourced for the strengths of the club, promoting and grooming starlets, then selling on at the right pace to not strip player resources too much — as the source of their success. 

“They have grown in leaps and bounds as a team ... in creating a nice pipeline for their team in terms of recruitment. Because when you see a player like [Lehlohonolo] Mojela in their team you know they already anticipated that if they were to lose some of their key players it would be important [to refresh with quality]. 

“Bringing in a player like [Sanele] Barns shows they are a team that understands itself and always wants to make sure it stays strong in that space. Defensively they have really not lost much except the captain [Deano van Rooyen to Orlando Pirates] but they have got [Kyle] Jurgens who is also good in that space. 

“Personally, I don't think they have lost that much. But if they were to lose the same sort of players for maybe two or three seasons in a row, that's where problems might start. Because I think this is how it happened at Maritzburg where they did well, but when they started to get used to this thing of selling three or four players per season, that starts to create problems in the long run. At the moment I think Stellies are still in a very good space.” 

In more than a decade in the Premiership Maritzburg built up their academy over time and developed a strong scouting network for talent from the lower leagues. Their best season came in 2017-18 where a strong combination ended fourth in the league and reached the Nedbank Cup final. They started selling players too fast in successive seasons, were relegated in 2022-23 and this month moved to Durban, renamed Durban City. Leicester's 2015-16 English Premier League title win is one of the great underdog shock stories in sports history. They were relegated in 2022-23 but have fought back to the Premiership in a season. 

Mngqithi believes keeping sight of their model, being content to press for top six finishes, some seasons less, and giving the top three a run for their money, will be crucial to Stellies' continued success. 

“I think Stellenbosch have done very well in that regard because first as a team you need to understand yourself. And I think at Stellenbosch, probably because they are also not changing coaches a lot, they have a very clear playing philosophy, which is working for them. 

“And believe me it's working for them up to a certain point. Because I remember after winning the MTN8 at Arrows, the expectations from management and everyone else start to shift. And they start to believe that now the team should be in the top four. And that puts stress on the team and creates problems. 

Having done so well in the league and Carling Cup, maybe teams start to respect them and start to sit back. And when they do that they must find ways to play in front of a packed defence. And that's where this scouting thing will be tested. But let's wait and see what their expectations are and what they do this season. So far everything has gone very well and I'm so happy for coach Steve because he's doing a very good job.

—  Manqoba Mngqithi

“I always make an example of Claudio Ranieri at Leicester City. He won the league with a lot of counterattacks because [striker] Jamie [Vardy] was strong and they were strong on set pieces. Immediately after winning the league the expectations grew; where, if you'd asked them at the start of the season if they'd have been happy being in the top eight, being in the top 10, they'd have said 'yes'. If you'd said top four they would have said, 'no, sure'. 

“After winning the league Ranieri lost his job because the expectations moved. And I'm just a bit scared that maybe Stellenbosch can go in that direction of thinking now the team has matured and the expectations start to grow. 

“A bit of that happened at Maritzburg where they did so well and started to introduce a lot of players and they started to shift their goalposts. It's very important that the club, first, understands its culture and playing concept, and that it would always put them somewhere in the league, but it might not take them somewhere in the league. 

“And once that is clear, you are happy to celebrate the excellence of doing better than what you anticipated. 

“Having done so well in the league and Carling Cup, maybe teams start to respect them and start to sit back. And when they do that they must find ways to play in front of a packed defence. 

“And that's where this scouting thing will be tested. But let's wait and see what their expectations are and what they do this season. So far everything has gone very well and I'm so happy for coach Steve because I think he's doing a very good job.”