Stellenbosch FC head coach Steve Barker says he hopes the club's recent success manages to fend off the likes of Mamelodi Sundowns from signing red-hot Iqraam Rayners and his Stellies teammates.
It is a movie that has played out for the last few seasons.
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Stellies punch above their weight, mostly with homegrown talent or clever signings that were discarded by their former teams, breaking boundary after boundary before Gauteng's more fancied teams swoop in to sign their best talent, leaving the Cape winelands outfit with the task of rebuilding and repeating the cycle all over again.
The likes of Ashley Du Preez, Sibongiseni Mthethwa, Junior Mendieta are a few examples of players who have been lured to Gauteng.
Rayners himself chased the bright lights that come with the city of gold, where he spent two years, without much success, at SuperSport United, before returning to the club where he became a household name.
Currently enjoying some of the best form of his life, Rayners has once again began to attract interest and his recent five-goal haul against Polokwane is certain to increase that.
Responding to questions around how the cub plan to keep Gauteng's big hitters at bay, Stellies coach Steve Barker says he hopes their recent success is enough to convince players that the grass may not always be greener on the other side.
"It is always a tough one, but I do believe we are starting to become a club and playing ourselves into position where you know, I think players in the past may have seen us as a team that is maybe not able to compete, not able to win trophies, maybe not able to play in Africa.
"But when you start getting yourself into position, where you're competing at the back end of tournaments and the high end of the log table, you know as a player you've got to be really thinking clearly of where your career wants to go. So I'm trusting that this group of players that we have, we can retain and keep because I believe if we can, then we can continue to be competitive both locally as well as abroad," he told journalists.
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The likes of Jayden Adams, Deano Van Rooyen, Fawaz Basadien, Antonio Van Wyk and Devin Titus have also been strongly linked with moves to Gauteng's 'Big three'.
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