Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi has opened up on former Mamelodi Sundowns duo Etiosa Ighodaro and Lebo Maboe, while confirming there’s still plans in the transfer window before it shuts next week.
Chiefs have been active in the window with no less than 11 signings, which include the latest loan deal of Khanyisa Mayo from CR Belouizdad last week.
Ighodaro, and Maboe, have been ruled out due to recovering from injuries, while the likes of Ethan Chislett, Nkanyisa Shinga, Luke Baartman, Asanele Velebayi, Siphesihle Ndlovu and Flavio Silva will be pushing for game time that Paseko Mako and Thabiso Monyane has received upon their off-season arrivals.
“There are players that have been recruited but they are in different conditions, some of them came to us without having proper pre-season work where they were or didn’t have a club… some had pre-seasons but got injured like Ighodaro,” he said.
“That’s why we need to be very careful in incorporating the new players because we didn’t recruit them to rush them – we recruited many players, young players also, because we we’re looking to the future of the club.
“We will incorporate them step by step – there are some that are ready and there are some that are not because of the reasons I cited before. Maboe had surgery a few weeks ago, Ighodaro was injured a few weeks ago.
“We have to be very careful how we incorporate them, and we need as well to look at the squad we have, the squad is very big, almost 40 players, which means we need to be careful in how we select the players. But we’re sure these recruitments will give us the consistency we need during the whole season.”
With over 40 players in the current squad, before the window shuts on 22 September, some exits and potentially loans are to be expected to be confirmed by the club.
“It’s true that the squad is big and the technical staff, management, the sporting director, Kaizer Jnr is working on options of try offload the squad, to give some players, who didn’t have consistency or time to get more game-time – to other teams,” he confirmed.
“Also, some young players need to get experienced needed for the PSL, at other clubs, everyone is aware of that and is aware of what will take place.”
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