Mamelodi Sundowns' head coach Rulani Mokwena says he maintains the same commitment to Sundowns' cause that he did when he turned down multiple offers to take up the mantle at the Brazilians, following their CAF Champions League disappointment.
Despite their best efforts, Sundowns were bundled out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage over two legs by Esperance, losing 2-0 on aggregate.
The club's search for CAF Champions League glory has entered its eighth year, having last won it back in 2016 under then coach Pitso Mosimane.
But the man at the helm, Mokwena is confident that Sundowns will triumph in Africa's elite club competition and has reiterated his commitment to the club amid questions about his future.
"I want to be at this club. That's why I signed a four-year contact. Even though I had bigger clubs in that stature making offers and I chose that I want to stay at Sundowns. I didn't choose that because I was emotional. I chose that of the lot, (because) of deliberations with my family, with the club, with the Motsepe family and also with the players. And so my intentions are to be here and to try to do my best every single day to deliver the Champions League trophy," he told journalists.
"But of course, football is a is a game that is business and result-orientated and I don't make those decisions about which coach stays or which coach goes. But while I'm here, the club will know that I will give 150% and if 150% is not good enough, like today, I will give 200% the next time," Mokwena told journalists.
He also explained his calm demeanor, which was a far cry from the distraught figure he cut last season when the club fell short at the same hurdle.
"Is it experience? Is it maturity? I don't know what it is. But I also have an understanding that this game of football can be very cruel. I've experienced it before. I've been through a lot of failures in my life and that's why I appreciate success. No matter how small it may be, because I know I'm not guaranteed to succeed because I've failed so many times and this is also one of those failures, but it's a failure that I'm prepared to take.
"And one of the things that I think South African football forgets, which sometimes are African football, remember only when it suits them is that I am only 37-years-old and that, I am only on my first year as the head coach of Mamelodi Sundowns, but I've been here as a co-coach now for three years. And if you count those three years as a co-head coach, we've won how many league titles? We've won the Nedbank Cup, we won a continental trophy.
"And so when I look at my tenure in my return to Sundowns, I myself feel very proud and privileged that I could contribute to this football club but as I said, it's part of the process and and I'm here to serve like many of us in the technical team. We will do everything that we can to try to help the club, but at the end, for sure, there needs to be a leader and the leader is in front in bad moments especially and he can take the back seat in the good moments but in the bad moments I've got to be in front and I've got to take responsibility and shoulder the blame for the Champions League exit," he said.
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