Owen da Gama relishing Magesi FC challenge

The 63-year-old has been away from the dugout since last working as part of the Sekhukhune United technical team two seasons ago.

Da Gama was asked whether he feels the Magesi job is an opportunity at redemption at this level.  

"I think you're right but I think with TS Galaxy when I got there, they were bottom of the log and I took them to number eight and then the next season that's when there were a few problems within the team,” da Gama said.

“There were disagreements that had nothing to do with football. It was disagreements in other aspects of the game including the coming in of Ramovic [Sead]. he was supposed to come in as my assistant coach but I mean I had Shaun Bartlett there, I had other people there and I just wanted them to wait a little bit.

“So, at TS Galaxy I think I did well apart from the second season when there were some things but I must say Tim Sukazi treated me with respect and I'll always respect him."

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Da Gama also had a short stint at Black Leopards in the Motsepe Foundation Championship but believes there was not enough time to make an impact.

"Black Leopards, I found them with 11 games to go and they were bottom of the log, I couldn't sign a player, I couldn't do anything. I gave it my best and I think in those six games or seven games, we won more games than they'd won the entire season. So, it was very tough but we gave it our best shot but it was a little bit far too late at the time," he added.

Da Gama’s big task now is to lift Magesi out of the relegation zone and the coach is adamant he has found a group capable of picking up points in the Betway Premiership in the coming weeks.

"As I said I'm trying to pick up everybody, everybody is important in this team and if we can get Gift Motupa right, we get Sekgota [Kgaogelo] right to be where they are supposed to be at their maximum operations levels, I think it will help the team a lot but I think we've got some really good players.

I was happy with Makhubu [Wonderboy], I'm happy with Baloyi [Bafedile]. I think that are a few other strikers that are available. So, it's just a matter of assessing all the players and creating healthy competition there."