SuperSport United head coach Gavin Hunt alluded that he has a different approach to Kaizer Chiefs, which turned out badly, when it comes to treating players who signed pre-contracts elsewhere.
Hunt has continued to play defender Thatayaone Ditlhokwe who has signed a pre-contract with Chiefs and has already been announced on a long-term contract.
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The multiple league-winning coach says there are many examples of teams suffering after letting a player go prematurely for signing a pre-contract elsewhere and he does not want to do that mistake with Ditlhokwe.
"I can give you so many examples when teams got rid of players which has cost them and I've had players where we've won the league where players have signed for other clubs," Hunt told the media at the club's training grounds.
"And we called them in and said, 'Listen, don't cheat the game, respect the game, the contract', if you say 'No I wanna leave' we'll let you go.
"But other than that he's (Ditlhokwe) been fantastic for us, it's a big loss for us going forward but right now he's got nine games. I've always said to him, 'Treat the game with respect and it will pay you back' and it has. If he drops off he won't play," he said.
Chiefs sidelined George Maluleka after it emerged that he signed a pre-contract with Mamelodi Sundowns in 2020 and Hunt alluded to that as one of the examples that it's not a good idea to outcast players who signed pre-contracts with other clubs, after Amakhosi, who had a transfer ban, missed out on a key player in the league title race they also lost to Sundowns.
The veteran mentor went on to say that he will even play Ditlhokwe against Chiefs in their reverse fixture in May.
"I think so, I'll definitely play him (against Chiefs), as I said there's so many examples of teams letting and a team you just spoke about (Chiefs) let a player go in the middle of the season, he took all the free-kicks, so there's examples of those types of things. So I think you need to keep players," he said.
"And players need to honour the game, six months is a long time, it's not six weeks. Even if a player signs a deal somewhere else, I'll still let the player train with us," he added.
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