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Kaizer Chiefs Head of Technical and Youth Development, Molefi Ntseki is adamant the products from their reserve team will feature more in the senior team in the new year.
Chiefs have been clear about their new model under Sporting Director Kaizer Motaung Junior, having promoted Mduduzi Shabalala towards the end of last season before introducing Samkelo Zwane in the first round of the current season.
Ntseki is confident that players like new sensation Mfundo Vilakazi and Wandile Duba will also feature in the second round.
"Under-17 is basically the cream of our development. A player who is 17 and older should be playing in the first team, and that's basically what you're looking for," said Ntseki.
"We are talking of Mdu, Duba – these are 18-year-olds. Actually, we are saying to ourselves, we are one year behind. Mdu and Duba should have been promoted when they were 17.
"Currently we have Mfundo Vilakazi, who is 17, playing in the DDC and they do get to play against the senior team players, and when you observe them, you don't see much of a difference, barring quality, experience and maturity – something we can build in anybody.
"So, I think that is the first phase of our promotion – get quality players, train and develop them according to the requirements they have to meet when they go to the first team."
Amakhosi have also seen a number of players selected to junior national teams and Ntseki feels this helps them to fastrack players to the senior team – five of the six reserve team players currently training with coach Arthur Zwane’s side already have national colours.
"Currently we have six players training with the first team. We have seen some of them playing in friendlies – Mdu Shabalala came in against Maritzburg [United] and scored his first goal in the PSL; we saw Zwane also play against Pirates.
"So, like I said, there's six of them currently with the first team and, even though it's holidays, already we are preparing them as professionals to say, this is your career and it's not only about having fun when everybody's working.
"So they have sacrificed their time with friends and families to train with the first team, which helps them become more matured, more confident, better tactically and technically, and that is why we see them already playing in the national teams."
