Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Cape Town City FC coach Eric Tinkler hopes the experience gained at Bidvest Wits and Orlando Pirates will stand him in good stead for his latest challenge.
Tinkler was confirmed two weeks ago as the head coach of newly-formed Cape Town City, the club which recently bought Black Aces' franchise.
With big plans in the pipeline for the Mother City side, Tinkler's first objective will be to make sure they stay in the PSL next season.
He will have to overcome the challenge of putting a new squad together; only around 14 players made the move down from Aces, leaving Tinkler needing to add considerable numbers to his side.
"We will be ready. We have eight weeks to prepare ourselves and what I saw at training is very, very good," Tinkler told the Sowetan Live.
"The time I took over as Wits' interim coach (in 2007), we were facing relegation but we managed to survive and when I took over from Vladimir Vermezovic (at Pirates, in December 2014) we were 12th and we finished fourth," continued the 45-year-old.
"We also had a poor start last season, but we managed to get ourselves out of that situation to finish in the top eight.
"At Wits, we were a bit like gypsies and we didn't have a place to train. We created that facility at Sturrock Park and we created the academy - that was a challenge on its own. Cape Town City FC is pretty much similar to that.
"So I can take that experience that I had at Wits and apply it here. This is a club that is going to have a lot of belief in youth and that is something we used to have at Wits."
