JOHANNESBURG - SuperSport United expect Jeremy Brockie to remain professional despite missing out on a big money move to cross-town rivals Mamelodi Sundowns.
The sentiment at the moment is that SuperSport are keeping an unhappy player who has made his intentions clear that he would have liked to leave the club. The New Zealand forward was the subject of much talk in the transfer window that closed on Thursday after he handed in a transfer request even though last year he signed a contract extension that tied him to Matsatsantsa a Pitori until 2020.
But when Sundowns came knocking for his services, he changed his mind. SuperSport refused to budge, arguing that they wouldn’t be bullied by Brockie or Sundowns into selling their No 1 marksman - especially as they are in the semifinals of the MTN8, the most financially rewarding cup in the domestic scene and the quarter-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup.
“I have left the door open for Jeremy, if he performs and we do well as a club, we will send him off in the right way at the right time,” SuperSport chief executive Stanley Matthews said.
“But we aren’t going to be bulldozed, not by Jeremy and not by any other football club. I could hand in a request to my bosses today for a 200 percent increase in my salary and they will send me out of the door. But I still have to go to work tomorrow and be a professional.
"That’s what we expect from Jeremy. We were never looking to sell him in this transfer window after Eric (Tinkler) was appointed as coach and he made it clear that he wants to keep Jeremy.”
Good luck to the @SuperSportFC boys and the rest of the @BafanaBafana team in their WCQ today! 👊👊
— Jeremy Brockie (@JRBrockie) September 1, 2017
The message from Matsatsantsa to Brockie is simple - help us make history by winning the Confederation Cup for the first time and help us win the MTN8, then we could fulfil your desire to move to bigger and better things. Brockie is the leading goalscorer in the Confederation Cup with nine goals. His attitude at training will determine whether he plays on Saturday in the second leg of the MTN8 semi-final against Maritzburg United after he was side-lined for the first leg at Lucas Moripe Stadium due to his transfer saga.
“One of those two things (winning the MTN8 or Confederation Cup) would have been good enough already,” Matthews said. “But for me, Jeremy has ruled himself out of the MTN8 equation through his antics. But the door is open.
"Like I said to Eric, if he puts his hand up and he is ready for selection on the 9th of September, he helps us get to the final and he helps us win it, I don’t expect to see Jeremy at the club at the end of the season. Maybe even not by the end of the January transfer window. But it’s not going to be shoved down our throats.
"It’s going to be a win-win situation where Jeremy gives us everything he’s got, like he has in the past, then SuperSport will behave like we have in the past where we have facilitated many, many moves of our players, coaches, medical staff and our administration to go on to bigger and better things.”