Thatayaone Ditlhokwe, SuperSport United, November 2021Backpagepix

Matthews reveals how Kaizer Chiefs hijacked SuperSport United's 'advanced negotiations' with Ditlhokwe

  • Ditlhokwe is in the final six months of his SSU contract
  • Last week Chiefs revealed a pre-contract agreement with the defender
  • SSU now detail how they lost Ditlhokwe to Chiefs

WHAT HAPPENED? Last-week, Amakhosi announced securing the Botswana captain on a pre-contract agreement and that he would officially join them in July. Ditlhokwe was in the final six months of his SuperSport United contract.

Matthews claims they had opened talks with the central defender to extend his contract but when Dilhokwe switched agents his new intermediary went to Chiefs with the SuperSport offer, which gave Amakhosi the chance to provide better terms.

WHAT MATTHEWS SAID: “We were in advanced negotiations with him at the time,” Matthew told KickOff. “Bluntly speaking, TT [Ditlhokwe] changed agents last year. He got a new agent. I tried for a couple of months to construct a deal. Obviously, the agent took my offers and went and got a better deal. That's life.

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“You live by the sword, you die by the sword. I have signed hundreds of players at SuperSport on pre-contracts. TT is the first player in 20 years that we have lost on a pre-contract, but we have to be true to our funding model and where we are at the moment.”

AND WHAT MORE? Matthews went on to say he regrets not selling the Zebras skipper in 2022 because they now cannot recoup the money they invested in the player.

The player has been with SuperSport since January 2020 after signing from Botswana side Township Rollers.

“Preferably, I would have liked to have sold TT,” said Matthews. “If everyone had been upfront with me about the way this was going, I would have sold TT in July or August last year for whatever price I could get, so that I could re-invest in the football club.

“But in this instance, I was strung along for a while, believing that there was never a problem and that we were done and that I did not have to worry. In the end it made no difference because the kind of numbers we were requested for in the end were completely out of the ballpark, beyond anything that I could have matched.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Chiefs' defence has been a huge concern this season and that saw coach Arthur Zwane shaking things up in their last match by dropping Zitha Kwinika who has been a regular.

The arrival of Ditlhokwe is expected to stabilise their rearguard which has the likes of Austin Dube and Njabulo Ngcobo struggling for game time this term.

WHAT NEXT FOR DITLHOKWE? The Botswana captain will be hoping to immediately gel with his new teammates and put himself in line for a start in Chiefs next assignment in the PSL when they take on TS Galaxy on Sunday 5th February.

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