Khune: I heard what coach Rulani said ...

Cape Town - Kaizer Chiefs captain Itumeleng Khune says that he has ignored the comments made by Orlando Pirates assistant coach Rulani Mokwena.

READ: Not Billiat but Katsande is Chiefs' real threat, says Mokwena

The Buccaneers' second in command openly stated that Amakhosi’s technical bench are weaker without Steve Komphela, who has since resigned and have been replace with Giovanni Solinas.

“Honestly‚ without sounding biased to probably my allegiance to Steve‚ but I think having lost Steve Komphela is in my opinion a big loss for Chiefs from a technical perspective‚” Mokwena said as quoted by the TimesLIVE website ahead of the Soweto derby on Saturday at FNB Stadium.

“The type of leader that he is‚ the tactical acumen that he possesses‚ I think in that regard I think if you compare the previous team to this team and from an organisational perspective‚ you can clearly see the lack of a coach of that calibre.

“Without taking anything away from the current head coach (Solinas)‚ but I do think that in Steve Komphela you can see with regards to how they played last season and how they play this season.”

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When probed by journalists during the media day in Johannesburg, Solinas refused to pay any attention to the comments made by Mokwena.

"My colleague is Micho (Milutin Sredojevic), Micho is (a) professional, I am a professional, so, I respect my colleague," Solinas said as quoted by the SABC. "I feel nothing (towards Mokwena’s comments), feel very good, I have no interest in this."

Meanwhile, Khune admits that he heard about the comments of Mokwena but is not paying too much attention to it ahead of the weekend’s big match.

"To be quite honest, I heard about what coach Rulani said but I didn’t pay too much attention to it," said the Amalkhosi 'keeper.

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"I respect him as a human being and a coach, but we are focussing on ourselves, we are focusing on our camp and we won’t let anything outside come in and distract us.

"So, we respect his comments, but we are just focusing on our camp and prepare for the derby."

Kick-off is at 15:30.