Kaizer Chiefs recently followed the trend of PSL teams having their pre-season camp in Europe and with Orlando Pirates back in Spain and Mamelodi Sundowns in Austria, are these European tours beneficial?
With renewed hope after a complete overhaul of the technical team, led by new head coach Nasreddine Nabi, Chiefs followed their local rivals Pirates, Sundowns and to an extent TS Galaxy after succumbing to the pressure of holding their preparations for the upcoming season in Turkiye.
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After their worst finish in the DStv Premiership, tenth, last season, Amakhosi will be bidding to end their trophy-less run which has continued for nine seasons.
The Buccaneers returned to Spain, where they first held their successful pre-season tour ahead of last season and they finished the 2023/24 campaign with the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup trophies and also finished second in the DStv Premiership standings. A repeat of the 2022/23 season.
Sundowns, meanwhile, who won the league with seven games to spare, their seventh in a row and also bagged the inaugural African Football League, held their pre-season base in Netherlands last campaign but flew out to Austria this time around.
There is not yet a conclusive evidence to suggest whether these pre-season tours in Europe benefit PSL teams or not.
And so KickOff caught up with Marumo Gallants head coach Dylan Kerr, to find out, from a coaching perspective, whether these tours make PSL teams better.
"Listen, any chance to go overseas and show the calibre of football that you could do, is always an advantage," said Kerr.
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"Of course you're playing against higher opposition than the normal PSL clubs, so you're testing yourself against European opposition.
"So it gives you an understanding where you are, where you are compared to where these teams are in Europe [for example], in the Championship they've got great teams. All these big clubs. It's a good test."