Baroka: Everybody wishes to be like Orlando Pirates

This comes ahead of the two sides meeting in the Nedbank Cup round of 16 at Orlando Stadium on Saturday.

Mphahlele, who has often engaged in business that has seen the movement of several players between Bakgaga and The Buccaneers, reserved high praise for the way the 'Iron Duke' conducts himself and his club.

"Pirates is a very, very good team, very well run, and we wish to be like them. Everybody wants to be like Pirates," said Mphahlele.

"And the chairman of Pirates is a humble person, we phone each other now and then when there's a need, and he'll never turn you away – you'll find him, or if you don't find him, he'll come back to you.

"So, to run a team of that magnitude, and you find someone who is so humble like Dr Irvin Khoza, it's rare, because some other chairman, you'll never even be able to speak to them.

"They will send you their technical director, or the team manager, and they will speak to you about the business of football, so I find that man and that team, the way he runs that team is very much professional."

With a cup quarter-final place up for grabs on Saturday, Mphahlele says they will reluctantly attempt a major upset in Pirates' own backyard.

"We wish him all the best in winning cups, and unfortunately he is playing against us on Saturday, and we treat ourselves with a development mentality of learning from them," he added.

"And to us they are a big brother, so we're going to try to kill our big brother, even though we don't want to do that."

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