Sono shoulders blame for relegation

This is the second time in their 25-year history that Cosmos have gone down to play in the second tier league but is the first in the modern day Premiership.

“If there is anyone to be blamed for the team being relegated, then I will take the blame,” he is quoted as saying on his club’s website.

With the 2-0 loss to fellow strugglers Black Leopards Cosmos went straight down the drain completing a dismal record in which they did not scored a single goal at their new home in Orkney since the start of the second half of the season.

“If it wasn’t us, it could have been anybody. Unfortunately it happened to us. We cannot stand here and point fingers at who to blame. I cannot blame my players, I cannot blame my supporters. I can only blame myself as I am the driver of this plane. I cannot take the glory when we win five trophies and then blame someone else when we lose or get relegated.

“No coach is infallible. I may have made some mistakes. Maybe I replaced players like Chris Katongo with the wrong players. I will sit down and look at where we went wrong,” said Sono.

Sono was then quick to point that he is hoping to hold onto most of the players in the current squad though reality has is that some will obviously not fancy playing in the First Division.

The chances are that quality players like Morgan Gould, Reneilwe Letsholonyane and Dikgang Mabalane could move on.

“The players are staying with the exception of Valery Nahayo and Thapelo Tshilo who are heading overseas. We are going to pay those that stay the same as we have been paying them as professionals. But like in any relationship, some may feel differently for one reason or the other and there is nothing you can do in that case,” says Sono.

“The majority of the players are staying and we have also signed a couple more from other African countries,” said Sono while boasting about the apparent affluence of Cosmos.

“I may be saying this for the first time, but look Cosmos is rich, very rich. Every time I sold a player, I didn’t put that money into my pocket, it went into the club. We will regroup and come back,” he said.

With just one game remaining, against Thanda Royal Zulu Sono on Sunday, said he would use fringe players.

“We are going to play a lot of fringe players and rest the senior players. The experience will stand the youngsters in good stead in future even of they lose 8-0 its okay,” he said.