"I was coached by (Jose) Mourinho, my friend, so mind games to me? Good luck," Benni McCarthy told the media ahead of their domestic cup clash.
Cape Town City will welcome Mamelodi Sundowns in the quarter-final clash of the Nedbank Cup and as expected, the build-up ahead of the game did not come without the two sides taking shots at one another in the media.
Read more: Pitso Hints At Why His Team Will Win The League
During Sundowns' pre-match press-conference yesterday, Mosimane was quoted saying that; credit should be given to Muhsin Ertugral, for the 'well-built' City side that both Tinkler and McCarthy 'inherited'.
"… Benni (McCarthy), he inherited the team and didn't touch much. We forget to pay tributes to Muhsin, who built a very strong team. It's the way it is," Mosimane said (in part), with the football fraternity believing that the Masandawana head coach might be playing mind games with the opposition.
However, McCarthy had a firm response to the Sundowns head coach, saying that his team may have been built from inheritance, but maintains that many of the players playing in the current squad, did not have the same chance under both Ertugral and Tinkler.
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"I am new, so the club was one year old when I arrived here, so whatever success they had, had nothing to do with me. Me, I am looking to build something for myself, so I did inherit a good team, whether it was from Muhsin or Eric, but every single player that you see plays in my team, how many players can Eric say he played? And how many players can Muhsin say he played?" McCarthy said at a pre-match conference.
McCarthy did, however, take a dig at head coach Mosimane following the comments by the Sundowns about the team's success being owed to Ertugral, although, maintained that all the talking will be done when his side host the Brazilians on Sunday.
"Come Sunday, that's when I talk, I think I am a little bit more experienced, I am not that naïve in the game to get bothered about mind games and whose success. I think Sundowns was successful before Pitso, I am just saying. But it is all good, it is part of football. But at the end of the day it is about the players…" he said.
