Posted in News on Jul 06, 2001.
The surprise signing of Permall comes barely a week after Chiefs had lured
Rowen Fernandez and Stanton Fredericks from Wits University, Rodney
Thobejane from Ria Stars and Jose Macamo from Mozambican side Costa do
Sol.
However, the Chiefs boss refused point blank to be drawn into revealing the
identity of the last player he is chasing but promised that he was prepared
to break the bank to bring the player to his headquarters.
There has been speculation during the last couple of weeks that Motaung was
eyeing both Rangers striker Gilbert Mushangazhike and Sundowns bang-bang
striker raphael Chukwu, but their respective teams have put a no-sale sign
on the heads of the players.
Chukwu in particular has come out publicly to say he was going nowhere;
that he belonged to Sundowns and will play for no other team in South
Africa except for the "Brazilians" unless he received an offer abroad.
The players (except Thobejane) made their debuts against Ghanaian and
African champions Hearts of Oak in Rustenbrug last week and Motaung was
upbeat about the performances of his latest recruits promising an exciting
season for Amakhosi.
"When I saw Macamo playing in the Champions League against Sundowns," said
Motaung, "I saw right away that he was a class player. And I wasted little
time in persuading him to come to Naturena.
"Well, I've watched Permall closely last season and I'm convinced that he's
an exciting young talent. And with the group of youngsters we have
assembled at Chiefs this year, I'm sure he will soon settle down and feel
at home."
Chiefs have off-loaded eight players and promoted a number of youngsters
from their academy while recalling Lucky Maselesele from Manning Rangers.
Although it is going to time more time before the players clicked as a
unit, there is no doubt that once they do, they are going to cause a hell
of a lot of problems for other teams.
Although Motaung did not want to spell it out, it is nevertheless clear
that he wants to stop at nothing to win the league championship which has
eluded the golden shirted Amakhosi now for the past eight years.