Ertugral reflects on abrupt Pirates exit: I don’t regret it!

The well-known and well-travelled Turkish coach announced his resignation from his position as Pirates head coach following a nightmare 6-1 defeat to SuperSport United back in 2016.

The 62-year-old coached Chiefs, Ajax Cape Town, Orlando Pirates and Golden Arrows among other teams in South Africa, and still has a home in Cape Town.

Ertugral spent just the solitary season with Pirates before his sudden departure

In a wide-ranging interview with Sport24, he has now reflected on his unceremonious departure from Pirates.

“I don’t regret it. I would have gone even earlier if I could have done it again. My resignation in 2016 (which was done during a live TV interview) had to be done at that time otherwise I knew the chairman would have convinced me to stay and I didn’t want that. Irvin Khoza and I had a nice talk later on and I respect him very much.

“He has done a lot for South African football. In terms of why I left, as Brighton Mhlongo explains in a video, the players got confused and we even ended up fighting each other. There is a lot that happened behind the scenes that I don’t even want to talk about today. I’m not a person who stands in public and says, ‘It’s not me, it’s him!’ I’ve heard that some people said that I demolished the team but I only lost one game (by that margin).

“The fact I’ve coached in three continents in a head role shows how valued I’ve been over my career.”

Meanwhile, in a wide ranging interview with TimesLive, Ertugral recently lavished praise on Sundowns for the manner in which they have become such a dominant force in local football.

“Sundowns is the big club now, sorry but it’s like that,” he said.

“When you go all over internationally, football people talk about Sundowns and you don’t hear anything Kaizer Chiefs. This is history and you need to accept it but at the same time try to get back to satisfying the millions of people who are behind you as quick as possible,” he added.

“I know I am putting my finger a little bit in the wounds of people and this will probably be a big talk again. But, football is played on the pitch and I don’t want to listen to the story of money.”