Gavin Lane Criticises Orlando Pirates Players for Lacking Passion, Accuses Them of Chasing Money at the Club

• Legendary former Orlando Pirates defender Gavin Lane has branded the current crop of players as passionless
• The 1995 African Champions Cup accused them of lacking hunger, going as far as saying that they were merely chasing their salaries
• The harsh words come from him following an insipid display by the Buccaneers in a disappointing 1-0 loss to TS Galaxy on Monday

Former Orlando Pirates defender Gavin Lane has taken aim at the current generation of players most unflatteringly.

Lane, a 1995 African Champions Cup winner, accused them of lacking hunger and merely playing for their paycheques and nothing more. This comes as the Buccaneers endured another season of mediocrity, which resulted in the team missing out on the league title for a 10th consecutive year.

Lane was speaking to SowetanLIVE in an exclusive interview after Pirates surrendered meekly to TS Galaxy on Monday in a 1-0 defeat. The loss doused any hopes of the team finishing in second place on the DStv Premiership table, missing out on CAF Champions League qualification.

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Lane said:

“In Africa [CAF Confederation Cup] they seem to want to play and do well there and are getting results. But when they come to the league, they look like there is no determination, nothing ... and they don’t care about the Pirates badge and they don’t care about anything.”

He added that the players were approaching football matches as a simple chore and not a battle of wills in his criticism. In pressing his point about the lack of passion, Lane said that they did not care about the Pirates badge.

Lane continued:

"We played with passion before. What we see is that they don’t care whether they lose or not. We used to fight each other in the dressing room even when we missed chances like that. We had determination. We wanted to go out and win matches. But it doesn’t look anything like that now and it is sad.”

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Apart from a relatively successful Confederations Cup where the team has qualified for the semifinals, its league form has been woeful. The Sea Robbers have failed to score against Baroka FC (0-0), Chippa United (0-0) and Galaxy.

Lane concluded that most of the players appeared to have switched off mentally with the season reaching its end, and that their salaries were what kept them going until then.

Orlando Pirates handed punishment by Premier Soccer League for mistreatment of TS Galaxy's Tim Sukazi

Orlando Pirates will breathe a sigh of relief at the punishment handed to them by the Premier Soccer League's disciplinary committee.

As reported by Sports Brief, the club was found guilty by the committee for the unsavoury incident last December which saw TS Galaxy chairman Tim Sukazi being manhandled by Pirates officials at the Orlando Stadium.

For this transgression, the club was fined R100 000 for 'unreasonably' denying Sukazi into the venue.