Former Orlando Pirates head coach Josef Zinnbauer has broken his silence for the first time since he resigned from his post at the Soweto giants.
After spending two years at the Sea Robbers, the German shockingly resigned ahead of the 2021/22 DStv Premiership campaign after their MTN8 knockout defeat to Swallows FC.
As quoted by Goal website, Zinnbauer reckons that his time at the Buccaneers was enjoyable but admits that the players are well short of "development" and "basic skills".
"There are things that you can teach your players as a senior head coach, and there are things that a player should have learned from a young age, which is difficult to teach when he is already old," he said.
"I enjoyed my time as an Orlando Pirates coach, but players there lack development, basic skills.
"Especially the defenders, even a 17-year-old European defender can do much better than some 30 years old PSL defenders.
"You can teach, shout, but it's impossible to change their weakness at that age."
Zinnbauer added: "South African clubs should learn how to develop players from as young as eight years old if they want to be successful in the future.
"Stop hijacking already old undeveloped players.
"Be patient with development, and you can go from where you are and become a powerhouse in football because you have extremely skilful and talented players, but you develop them wrongly."
Meanwhile, the Buccaneers are back in action tomorrow against Marumo Gallants for a midweek Premiership encounter.
Kick-off is at 17:00.