Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has shared more details regarding his winger Monnapule Saleng.
The 28-year-old attacker is no longer training with the Downs senior side after multiple disciplinary issues earlier this year.
The coach earlier revealed that one of the issues was that Saleng failed to pitch up for the second leg of the CAF Champions League final in May.
On Thursday, ahead of the MTN8 semi-final match with Golden Arrows, Cardoso explained that the issue with Saleng was now handled by the club management.
“It was never a coach issue,” the Sundowns coach said on Saleng.
“He was always a player we gave a lot, a lot, a lot of effort. We tried to push him so much toward the group, toward the dynamic of the group, towards the behaviours that a professional player has to have, the mental stability that a professional player has to have.
“But inside the group we have no issues, we have a lot of understanding about what are the rules and our locker room has rules, the players establish those, and relate, and when a player systematically breaks these kind of things towards the teammates, towards the coaches, towards the club, we don’t know what we can count on.”
The Portuguese coach said there were times the winger would not show up.
“Imagine you train all of the week normal and then you put his name on a list, and the day we are waiting for him in the bus he just doesn’t appear,” he said as per iDiski Times.
“So these things did not happen once, did not happen twice, three, four times… being the last to arrive, the first to go away.”
Upon joining Sundowns from Pirates, Cardoso said a lot was done to ensure that Saleng was made part of the Downs family.
“I don’t know if you remember, but my assistant showed me there was a moment that I was dancing with him in the middle of the circle myself – trying to make him exactly understand how we wanted to integrate him in the family.
“But to be part of the family, you also need to want to be in the dynamic of the family. And it’s now the club’s time to speak about because it’s a club-issue and no more a coach’s questions.”
