How Royal AM maintain ‘positive attitude’ amid off-field issues

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Royal AM head coach John Maduka has spoken about how his players maintain a “positive attitude” amid the club’s ongoing off-field issues.

Thwihli Thwahla continue to face player registration restrictions due to FIFA bans after failing to pay monies owed to their former players Samir Nurkovic and Ricardo Nascimento.

The last transfer window was their third one not signing players while they keep on losing some of their key players.

Despite these setbacks, Royal AM have shown resilience at the start of the season, securing one win, four draws, and one loss in their first six Betway Premiership matches.

Maduka attributed the positive performances to the players’ understanding of the club’s situation.

He explained that the players have avoided self-pity and instead focused on finding solutions to overcome the challenges.

MADUKA ON ROYAL AM’S RESILIENCE AMID OFF-FIELD ISSUES

“These boys are working hard here. And, They’re working very, very hard, you know. They put so much effort at training. You know, here is just to present something that has been happening at training,” said Maduka.

“The attitude has been right. They understand where we are now, and they know that. You see it’s them that must do the work, you know, as we are there to guide them.

“But at the end of the day, they know that they have to work for each and every week. We can’t sit down and complain and all that. What we need is to work for ourselves.

John Maduka speaking in the Prince Mangosuthu Legacy Cup press conference – Picture by Royal AM

“And these boys have showed that at training, they don’t complain. The attitude is good, the mentality is good at training. And when you’ve got players that are willing, you know, to work like that, it becomes it becomes easy.

“And we said we must work as a team because when you when you work as a team, we become so strong.

“That’s why you can see that, you know, we’ve got a team that is very united, the team that pulls together, the team that, you know, when they go forward, they go forward together as a team and when they defend, they defend together.”

Maduka emphasised the importance of maintaining consistency and avoiding complacency, acknowledging that the team will face further challenges as the season progresses.

MADUKA SAYS ROYAL AM MUST AVOID COMPLACENCY

“So, so happy, you know, to have them, and we just hope that we don’t [allow] complacency and it don’t doesn’t creep in because once that comes in thinking now you are the best, then it becomes your problem,” added Maduka.

“That’s when you start dropping. And again, it becomes very, very difficult. The more you do well, the more it becomes very, very, very difficult.

“Now it’s for us to work even more harder, work even more and more harder because whoever comes to play against us won’t take us lightly.”

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