What was supposedly meant to be a harmonious phone call to clear the air between Sead Ramovic and Rulani Mokwena, had turned into something very different.
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In October last year, Ramovic had some choice words about his counterpart, after a Carling Knockout match which was won by TS Galaxy at the Mbombela Stadium.
After that match, Rulani attributed the loss to the Rockets to the absence of seven of his regular players, who had done duty for Bafana Bafana and had returned to the club later than required.
Not taking the comments kindly, Ramovic had a public address to Mokwena, revealing that he had undermined the efforts of TS Galaxy players as well as his own players who had done duty on the day. Four months later and Mokwena revealed that he had addressed the issues with the German coach via a phone call but had expressed his "displeasure" on the situation.
However, in a press conference ahead of their Nedbank Cup clash against Golden Arrows, Ramovic claimed that the phone call was not as cordial as some might think.
"I would like to start on this way. I did not come to South Africa to argue with anyone. I did not come here (for that) and my goal is not to fight with anyone or to make any headlines. I came here so that my team improves, that my club improves that, maybe one day if I leave the club, that the new coach that comes will find a top club that he can continue to have even more success as the club has had with me," Ramovic told the media at a Nedbank Cup press conference.
"This is my goal. If somebody like he [Rulani] did to undermine, and to disrespect my players, the hard work they do every day. And if we win a game against them, we should all know here. They are spending over R150 million in the last two seasons for players. So it means that they have a squad.
"It's just unbelievable quality. And if a coach loses against us after we brought players from NFD, players from under-21 (level). We know TS Galaxy don't have this financial power like they do, but we have to find ways how we can succeed. And I think that we do a very good job, but without the hard work of the players, any coach can sit here, and he won't have a chance if the players don't want to improve and if the players don't want to come.
"So, if I see my players every day, how hard they work. I will always protect and raise my voice if somebody - doesn't matter who it is - disrespects my players, disrespects the value of this club, of my staff, of me and this is what he did. He came with a cheap excuse that he didn't play with seven players, so it means that he disrespected, first of all, his own players that played. And when you see which players they have on the field against us. Top class with this team he can also win the league, but if he feels that he cannot have a Plan B. It also speaks to his quality, but I don't want to go there, and I don't care," Ramovic continued to tell journalists."We have principles, I have values, and I care about my players that no one will disrespect the hard work they did on this day to win against Sundowns. I didn't want actually to say so much about it. But when he came up again and told the public. So it means he called someone because he doesn't want to go public. But when he talks to a guy it should stay it should stay that way, you cannot go then afterwards into the public and say, 'but I did the this and this and this - but he did, and now we have to finish the sentence. "So, Rulani didn't call me after this happened. It was on the 13th of November. I raised my voice that he disrespected my players, me, my staff and the club. I didn't attack him, I just protected my players and I will not let anyone disrespect them. So after a month on the 9th of December we were in the bus and we drove to Mbombela. [Khuliso] Mudau came to me when he saw me in the mall and he asked me coach, 'when you want to buy me with a smile'. So I told him, 'I can't buy you because you are too expensive.' So he asked me then, 'why you fight with my coach?' and I told him I don't fight and it's not my goal to fight with anyone."
"I explained to them exactly the same thing. I will not let anyone and please tell your coach 'stop to undermine your colleagues and their work and stop to undermining my players'. So what happened [is that] I got a call from him during the bus driving to Mbombela. I picked up the phone and he started to yell to scream. I will just make it short because he talked 10 minutes or entertained me with a lot of nonsense. But what he told me it was. "Who the **** are you to come to my ******* country and talk to me like this. Do you know who my parents are? Be careful how you talk because you are in my ******* country. After that, I told him that 'I don't care who you, who your parents are and he then hung up the phone," Ramovic alleged the following conversation occurred in his phone call with Mokwena.
Soccer Laduma contacted Sundowns for a comment on what Ramovic claimed the Masandawana coach told him on the phone. The club did not respond to the Siya crew by the time Ramovic's claims were published.
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