Mamelodi Sundowns teenager Thato Sibiya in action against RB Leipzig at the Lucas Moripe Stadium last Friday evening.
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso believes it will always be a balancing act between fielding experienced players and promoting youngsters from the academy at a competitive club such as the CAF Champions League winners.
Sundowns have often been accused of “buying their success” with a host of stars being acquired — both locally and abroad — to bolster the ranks at Chloorkop each season, rather than the club promoting from within.
However, Cardoso believes last season — when Sundowns surrendered their Betway Premiership crown for the first time in nine seasons — showed that youngsters need to be integrated alongside the regulars, rather than thrown in collectively at the deep end. This collective promotion was unfortunately necessary last season when the club was thin on resources after returning from the FIFA Club World Cup.
“It's very good that we can speak about that because, for example, I think that one of the reasons that didn't allow us to start the season the way we could have started was exactly because of the fact that we had to immediately put too many youngsters to play in the moment that we needed, because we had a lack of numbers in that moment,” Cardoso said on Sundowns’ The Pitchside Podcast.
