Abdeslam Ouaddou bids Patrick Maswanganyi farewell after overcoming difficult start

Bidding farewell to the Bafana Bafana international as he jets off to Bahrain to link up with his new Bahrain club Al-Khaldiya. 

Ouaddou revealed that initially, he was not entirely happy with Maswanganyi at training, but as time progressed, things improved and they found each other.

"We have a huge respect for this player for what he gave to the club. The titles that he won, I think he's a fantastic player, he's a gifted player that every coach wants to have in his team,” Ouaddou said. 

“I think we had a difficult moment last season because I think he put a little bit of time into understanding what I was expecting from him about his involvement in the game, his involvement in training because I always said that the job doesn't start during the game. 

“If you prepare for the game, the training starts at the beginning of the week. For me trainings are very important and I was not happy with the way he was training."

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Maswanganyi finished last season with the impressive stats of 10 goals and four assists in 34 matches in all competitions, as he helped Pirates complete their third domestic treble in the PSL era. 

Ouaddou went further to explain why Maswanganyi could have made coach Hugo Broos’ Bafana Bafana squad at the FIFA World Cup this year in Mexico and the US, had he listened to him.

"And I'm happy that he came with a fantastic behaviour to 24 of June, fantastic behaviour, fresh in every training and I think you guys have seen his potential at the beginning of the season,” the coach added. 

“Of course it's somebody that is very important and I think if he had listened to me last season, he would have gone to the World Cup, definitely."