South African coach Fadlu Davids has explained why he believes his Simba side exceeded expectations in the just-ended Tanzanian Premier League season.
Davids joined Wekundu wa Msimbazi at the start of the 2024/25 season and managed to guide the team to the final of the CAF Confederation Cup. However, they lost it to the Moroccan side RSB Berkane.
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The former Orlando Pirates mentor's experience also helped the team fight for the league title with bitter rivals Young Africans until the final game of the season.
Simba missed out on the title after falling to a 2-0 defeat to Yanga at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Wednesday. They finished as runners-up with 78 points, four behind Yanga, who were crowned the champions.
After the match, Davids heaped praise on his players and insisted Simba overachieved in the season despite not winning any trophy.
"First of all, well done to Young Africans (Yanga), I think they had players with a big-match temperament. That was the difference today, the very powerful influence that Yanga has, you know outside, but also on the field, their players have shown today the mentality to manage a big game," Davids told Pan-Africa Football.
"What we experienced, we have to zoom out and look at the season. Maybe we overachieved, you know with the type of squad we have. You know, a lot of things went wrong off the field this season for us. It is very disappointing but we have to sit down with management and see if they have the ambition to move forward.
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"We have to discuss whether we are going to strengthen the squad, because you can see the squad we have, we have a good foundation but we definitely need more power, more mentality, bigger match quality type of players, to be able to get the best level and above. We really have to sit down with management and see what the future is," he added.
"I have to be honest and say we over achieved this season. With a new team, with a young team, getting to this stage, to challenge Yanga all the way. But like I said before, this is the foundation block. This season, the players were signed by the club before I came. I made three or two signings, so now we have to sit down and see what is possible, and what is not possible."
