Nteo denies Zondo's Royal AM exit

Nteo denies Zondo's Royal AM exit

Royal AM co-coach Abram œWire Nteo has denied that the coaching changes at the club are causing confusion and could be unsettling the team. 

AM suffered a 3-1 loss to SuperSport United in a DStv Premiership match at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Tuesday night, with question marks over the future of co-coach Khabo Zondo after it was reported that he had parted ways with the club.

This came only a few weeks after Dan 'Dance' Malesela vacated his co-coaching role to return to his former employers Maruma Gallants, having also cited technical team arrangements for his abrupt departure.

"The one of Dan, yes, I understand he left, but for Khabo, I'm not sure what's happening. From what I know, he is still with us. I'm really not sure what's happening but as far as I know he's still part of Royal AM," Nteo told reporters after the match.

"Somewhere, somehow, it didn't affect [the team] that much in terms of Coach Dan having left, and maybe this thing of Khabo Zondo that came in the media affected the players somewhere, somehow.

"But we spoke to them and Coach Khabo is still part of Royal AM as far as I know, and I can't comment more in terms of the changing of coaches - I only know the one of Coach Dan 'Dance', the other ones I don't know."

The former Bloemfontein Celtic assistant coach also conceded that the team gave a subpar performance on the night as he criticised the defensive errors in particular.

"But in the first half we didn't do well, we were defending too deep, we were losing the ball easily and we never even had a shot on target in the first half, so it was a poor performance from them, especially in the first half," Nteo added.

"But in the second half they tried, they played and we managed to equalise but we could see there were a lot of mistakes, especially at the back. So, today the performance was poor from them, they didn't pitch up in the field and I was not happy with the performance."

By Velile Mnyandu