Richards Bay FC co-coach Ronnie Gabriel has placed his faith in new signing Gabadinho Mhango to deliver the goals this season, following the departure of star forward Yanela Mbuthuma to Orlando Pirates.
Mbuthuma, who moved to the Soweto giants alongside teammate Nkosikhona Ndaba during the current transfer window, made his Buccaneers debut this past weekend in their 2-0 MTN8 quarter-final win over Polokwane City at Orlando Stadium.
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The 23-year-old was a key figure for the Natal Rich Boyz last season, and while his exit has left a noticeable gap in attack, Gabriel insists the club has acted swiftly and decisively to reinforce the squad in the right areas.
“If you speak about Mbuthuma, he was a loss to the team. He did very well for us last season,” Gabriel told the journalists. “He got us a few goals and it’s good that he went to a team like Pirates, but we managed to replace him with Mhango. We went for the like-for-like, who’s a quality striker,” the coach said.
Mhango joined Richards Bay on a free transfer from Marumo Gallants and made his first appearance for his new club in their 4-0 MTN8 quarter-final defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday evening.
Despite the disappointing result, Gabriel remains optimistic that the Malawian international will come good once he settles into the team.
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“We believe that he’s got goals in the PSL. Maybe he could give us the goals that Mbuthuma gave us last season. The signings we made were like-for-like signings,” Gabriel added.
“We lost the striker, we managed to get one. We lost our left-back Ndaba as well, but we got the replacement. So, the positions that we lost, we managed to replace them adequately and going into the new season, I believe we will be fine,” concluded the coach.
