Traquil’s rallying cry for stability
While Township Rollers fans and players, wait anxiously to learn of what the future of the club holds, following the disastrous and trophyless season, the club head coach, Sergio Traquil expects the team to face a challenging period of rebuilding and called for immediate stability within the clubs’ executives to resolve lingering issues pertaining to the team’s ownership.
“When you want a winning team, you have to think about stability, if you don’t have stability you cannot have a winning team,” Traquil told BG Sport after their 1 nil loss to Gaborone United in the Orange FA Cup on Sunday.
The Portuguese admitted that it has been a challenging exercise to lead the team through periods of uncertainty regarding the future of the club and their own futures.
“I can give you an example, between GU [Gaborone United] and Galaxy [Jwaneng], Galaxy had stability throughout the season, GU didn’t have stability they had problems here and there and that is why Galaxy will be crowned the champions, that is the main difference, stability. When the situation escalated our players lost confidence, it was evident during trainings and in some games it has been very difficult,” he said.
“To be honest with you, all these issues surrounding the team, even before I came, when I arrived we already had a lot of problems surrounding the club. All these affect the players a lot, we know that these players are professionals, we know that we are paid to go out there and perform, at the end of the day we need stability as well,” Traquil explained.
He further indicated that it will be difficult to plan for next season and admitted that he also is uncertain of his future at the club.
A group of visibly disappointed Mapalastina fans did not hold back to show their frustration after the game on Sunday, while others called for the Portuguese gaffer to be sacked, others were looking forward to Wednesday 31st
May 2023, a date of Shah’s exit from the club, highlighting that, even if they could wish to keep the coach, they will still not be able to afford him.
“He [Jagdish Shah] brought me here and now he is going, I have been approached about the possibilities to renew seeing how I have been working; we will have to wait and see what happens but Township will always be
Township, we can become giants, we need the courage to do things right, a lot of things has to change, especially the mentality,” he responded.
Traquil took the reins from club legend Thabo Mahala Motang who played 10 matches and won six (6), drawing three (3) and losing one (1), boasting a 60 percent win ratio.
The Portuguese has taken charge of the club on 18 occasions, winning only five (5) drawing 11 and losing twice, resulting in a 27.7 percent win ratio, much to the frustration of the majority of the club’s supporters.
The other challenge facing the team is retaining some of their star players with other local top clubs looking to lure them away from the team, while others are contemplating contracts terminations and non-renewals.
“We need to keep our top players, the players who understands the culture and philosophy of this club, we need to add quality to our squad so we can’t afford to lose what we already have, if we want to build a strong team for next season we need to improve on what we already have, take for example, the amount of draws we have the season if we had good quality finishers we could have turned them into wins because we create a lot,” Traquil told BG Sport.
He concluded by highlighting that he has enjoyed his time in Botswana despite the challenging season they endured at the club but his chances to remain with Mapalastina appears to be highly unlikely.