With contract talks now out of the way, coach Pitso Mosimane has discussed part of the expectations set out by Mamelodi Sundowns president Patrice Motsepe.
'Jingles' signed a new four-year deal last week and the focus now turns to deliverables – and they are of a high standard, the coach said.
"The president is right, I want the Champions League again myself – it needs to come. But you don't buy it. It's difficult," Mosimane told journalists.
Sundowns were crowned CAF Champions League winners in 2016 and since then they have only gone as far as the semifinals.
"Sometimes you are doing very well, but unfortunate things happen – you saw in Cairo the ball deflected from Wayne Arendse's foot and it went onto the path of the Al Ahly player and he scored. Then we came back home and our young player Lebo (Maboe) scored an own goal trying to clear the ball. Can you say its tactics? It is what it is."
Mosimane said there was no proven formula to winning the continental title and recalled that when Downs did so four years ago they had actually been out after being knocked out by AS Vita in the group stages play-off.
"Look how we won it, we were out and came back because Vita defaulted and we won it. At this point we have the star, but who cares how we got it? Football is a game of moments. This season we didn't lose a single game in the group stages – we won away and managed our highest points tally ever," the coach explained.
"But then we bombed out in the quarterfinals. The year before that we were not top of the group and we went to the semifinals. It's a jigsaw puzzle."
