Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) owner Dr Abram Sello says there were lots of risks and doubts on ground to consider before he took a big leap of faith to purchase the club earlier in the year.
The business tycoon surprised many when he moved to buy the club back in February. At the time, the club seemed destined to go down the drain under the management of former owner Lawrence Mulaudzi.
It was particularly a tough first six months in the club’s existence as they famously made lots of adminitarive and financial errors that saw them get all the negative headlines. Their reputation in the league was clouded by controversies which included unpaid salaries to general mismanagement of the club.
However, the arrival of Dr Sello now looks to be what TTM needed, with the club turning their fortunes for the better, highlighted by their progress to the Nedbank Cup semi-finals.
Speaking in an interview, Sello admits there were risks involved in buying the club but also knew it was one worth taking.
“Ja, there were lots of questions but the answer is that I did not just go into the whole thing, they were on game number nine by then and I looked and said there are 30 games to go and there are good players and I realized okay as businessman here I think it’s just about the human relations, the pride within ourselves and who listens to who and then who doesn’t gel together and they just needed someone to make sure that the mixer goes well and when I did analysis I realized that this is something worth the risk,” Dr Sello told the crew.
“Also, remember these players were sitting there frustrated, some went to the DRC, some went to stay at home. Almost four or five players stayed at home and they said we would rather stay at home instead of playing for a club like this and it was something like ‘eish’ whoah I can go and solve that with the little experience that I got in business, with my HR solutions that I’ve got and of course, not alone, with a panel of guys who are really experienced and wanted to see this thing going on.”
“Then from there we saw it was worth the risk and then there we are gradually, we are not fully out but we are getting there, we are like any other club.”
TTM are 14th on the PSL standings but can easily move further up the standings if they manage to put out a positive run of results. They returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over TS Galaxy at the weekend.