Golden Arrows coach Manqoba Mngqithi insists the club’s transfer ban will not derail their season, backing his young, expanded squad after Sunday’s defeat to TS Galaxy.
Arrows were recently added to Fifa’s list of sanctioned clubs following non-payment issues related to former striker Knox Mutizwa.
While the administrative setback has unsettled supporters, Mngqithi refused to fuel any panic, instead reinforcing his belief in the structure the technical team has been quietly building behind the scenes.
“The administration issues are not my space, but also I don’t think it will have any effect on the team because we’ve signed a lot of players to make sure that we build a project that will sustain itself,” he said.
The veteran mentor, who has coached at the highest level in the country, emphasised that squad planning—especially for a youth-driven club like Arrows—was done long before the ban arrived.
He believes the timing of their recruitment now works in their favour, giving young players room to develop without external pressure.
“I’ve got a squad that is very big. I’ve got a lot of youngsters, probably about eight or nine of them feature for the DDC as well because we’re building them up but I’m very optimistic they’ll have an impact in the first team.”
“I was not even looking to make any signings for the next two or three windows maybe.”
Mngqithi’s comments came after Arrows fell short in a tight league match against Galaxy, despite beating the same opponents earlier in the Carling Knockout Cup quarterfinals.
That recent win had raised expectations, but Sunday’s result instead extended Galaxy’s unbeaten league run against Arrows to six matches. For the coach, however, the difficulty of facing the same opponent twice in quick succession was nothing new.
“In my experience as a coach, I hate nothing more than playing back-to-back games with the same team,” he said.
“Even when I was (coaching) a very very big team, it would be difficult to win those games consecutively and I don’t know why, it’s just a strange occurrence in football.”
Mngqithi felt his side deserved more from the match, pointing to their control, creativity and overall resilience. The loss, he argued, had more to do with football’s unpredictability than tactical shortcomings.
“The performance of my team suggests that we should be going home with something but it’s like the universe decided otherwise.”
“The team created enough opportunities to win the match but we’re going home with a loss and that’s football and we must learn from such games.”
Still, the Arrows boss believes the experience will accelerate the growth of his young players.
He stressed that setbacks — especially narrow defeats — often become crucial developmental tools, helping mould a squad capable of sustaining long-term competitiveness even under external pressures like transfer bans.
