Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker says none of their players are for sale despite having attracted the attention of Gauteng's big hitters.
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Stellies have proven to be a reliable supplier of high calibre players to 'bigger' clubs in the DStv Premiership.
The Cape winelands outfit have lost the likes of Ashley Du Preez, Junior Mendieta, Zitha Kwinika, Sibongiseni Mthethwa and even talisman Iqraam Rayners amongst others in recent years.
But as the club's stock continues to grow, so too does their confidence in their ability to retain their best players as in the case of Jayden Adams, who is the subject of interest from Mamelodi Sundowns.
Barker revealed why he would rather have the 23-year-old playing in Europe than warming the bench as a high-profile signing at Sundowns.
"The better you become as a football club and winning cups and being second, players making Bafana [Bafana], their value from here goes to there. So, if clubs are gonna want to come and look for a player, I don't think it's gonna be as easy as it was in the past," he told journalists.
"Number one, because from an economic and financial point of view, if you've got players sitting on the bench for Sundowns costing R40 million. What reason is Jayden Adams not worth that, maybe more? I need answers…
"If Sundowns do, then they have to dig deep. That's the one thing.
"The second thing is that Jayden has ambitions to play in Europe and I think you know he is that age where going to Europe would be better in his interest, so I would advise him to rather consider that than local. And you don't want him going to Sundowns and ending up playing 13 or 14 league games. It's going to be a lot more difficult for teams because the stock of the players is a lot higher, they're far more valuable and they're playing in Africa, and we weren't playing in Africa before. We weren't looking, we weren't maybe challenging enough to win trophies. Now you've won a trophy. You're playing in Africa. So, it's more difficult for them to just want this one and that one. It'll be tough, so we're confident that we can retain our squad. There may be a single situation that maybe we would have to consider.
"As we sit here, there's no talk, no offers, no one is for sale, nothing whatsoever currently," he said.
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