After Patrick Maswanganyi had a mysterious disappearance from the Orlando Pirates squad late last year, former midfielder Clifford Ngobeni has revealed how the club has a bad history of protecting 'bad boys', even to the harm of other players.
It became a big topic of discussion in the football circles in December last year, after Maswanganyi missed back-to-back CAF Champions League matches against Al Ahly and Stade d'Abidjan, with no concrete reasons given.
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Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro was at pains to explain why 'Tito' was not in the matchday squad, refusing to go into detail about a mysterious 'health' issue, opening room for the doubts that he was making up stories to cover up for the 27-year-old.
The incident was at the same time Monnapule Saleng also disappeared from the squad, where allegations emerged that the duo were not in the squad for disciplinary reasons.
Ngobeni, who joined The Buccaneers as one of the best midfielders in the country from Cape Town Spurs (formerly Ajax Cape Town) in 2010, has revealed how he was sidelined in favor of 'bad boys' in a team he competed with Andile Jali and Oupa Manyisa.
"In South Africa when you're a nice person they think you're a fool, they take you for granted. Bad boys in SA make it far. Pirates made me feel, no matter your discipline, humbleness, if you're not meant to be there, you're not meant to be there," Ngobeni said on Trap and Pass YouTube Channel.
"Competition, I was playing, it was me and Jali, (Isaac) Chansa was playing ahead as a ten, Oupa Manyisa (also) came up, that's when things started to be (shaky). As a footballer, it's fine to be sidelined but when you get another opportunity and get man of the match.
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"And the next game you don't even play, you ask yourself (what happened?) and me where I come from we believe in merit. You play well, you play (the next game). I came to Pirates and things were completely different, different culture," Ngobeni alleged.
Pirates only won the double treble in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons after Ngobeni had already left, with Jali and Manyisa combination arguably the best in the country at the time.
