Durban - Kaizer Chiefs marketing director, Jessica Motaung has slammed disrespectful agents as the club engages in contract negotiations ahead of the January transfer window.
Amakhosi are deadlocked in discussion with one of the club's most promising talents, midfielder Njabulo Blom, with his contract set to expire at the end of the current campaign, allowing him room to negotiate a pre-contract with a potential suitor next month.
Motaung, who revealed the club’s ambitions of keeping their best players at the Naturena-based team, said that while they were pleased with the progress of talks between Blom's representatives and the club, she did, however, believe that all the role players – especially agents – should respect clubs.
“We as Chiefs want to retain our players, we want to pay them well and to take care of them. But we also have to be realistic.
“There needs to be respect in the industry with all the role players. The agents must respect the team, the team must respect the player and the club must respect the agent, it's a whole ecosystem and we need to respect each other.”
She said: “There are agents in the ecosystem that are not respecting how the businesses must be run and just because they can railroad us and use the media doesn't mean they will win the game.
“We are still a team that invests in their players and invests in the youth and we make sure they do well. While we do like exporting players, we also want to keep enough for us to achieve.”
The Blom-Chiefs saga has dragged on for nearly six months and the 24-year-old has attracted the interest of Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, with SuperSport United having ruled themselves out of the race.
Blom has been in impressive form this season, featuring in both right back and defensive midfield positions, making 11 appearances so far.
The twinkle-toed youngster has earned himself a call-up to the national team, featuring on the bench for Bafana Bafana’s friendlies against Angola and Mozambique.
Motaung has promised that the club are working tirelessly to find a resolution between the two parties, but are open to the possibility that he might opt to leave.
“I’ll be sad to lose Blom, but if we do lose him it will not be without any effort from us. The club has worked very hard behind the scenes to make sure he is part of our team, but sometimes we just have to accept that the player doesn’t want to be a part of the team and maybe he wants to learn and experience other things.”
@SmisoScribe