Renowned football agent Mike Makaab has echoed sentiments made by Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Manqoba Mngqithi regarding Kaizer Chiefs' young players, instead apportioning blame elsewhere for the recent 4-0 defeat.
The Soweto giants suffered an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns in their last outing, after which, at the post-match press conference, Mngqithi expressed some concern that Amakhosi's younger players had perhaps been asked to do too much, too early.
"I don't want to sound bad, but I think the youngsters that Kaizer Chiefs has brought into their first team are very good boys," Mngqithi said, at the time.
"But the biggest mistake that you can make with those young players is to put the load of a team as big as Kaizer Chiefs on their shoulders."
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The comments received mixed reviews on social media.
Makaab, too, believes Chiefs may have become overly reliant on the young brigade.
"Look, I have always been an advocate of playing young players, because the only way young players develop is if they, in my opinion, are thrown into the deep end... but there is a time and place to throw them in," Makaab said on Gagasi FM's Extra Time.
"You look at Rele (Mofokeng), Rele was brought along very slowly by (Jose) Riveiro, and then when (Orlando) Pirates started gaining momentum, Rele was introduced more often, started a number of games and is now almost a regular starter, and we have seen what he's done.
"It's very difficult to bring in a group of youngsters when the team is still struggling to find its rhythm, to find consistency.
"I said that on social media and I was hammered by certain people, but I will repeat it again.
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"It was not the youngsters who let Kaizer Chiefs down. People talk about that ball from Samkelo Zwane that led to the penalty - sure, I accept that.
"There are gonna be mistakes made by young players who don't have that experience of pressure situations. However, take away that [mistake by Zwane], the players that let Chiefs down were the senior players," he added.