Cape Town City sack Coach Tinkler - Turkish Tactician Ertugral Takes the Reins

John Eastwood

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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John Eastwood 03 Jan 2025

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Eric Tinkler fired as head coach after poor season start.
Muhsin Ertugral appointed as interim coach and technical director.
Signed U20 captain Patrick Autata; strengthens reserve team.

Cape Town City have sacked their coach and made a potentially risky appointment (Getty Images).

City Part Ways with Tinkler

Cape Town City have sacked head coach Eric Tinkler following a difficult start to the 2024/25 Betway Premiership season.
City Part Ways with Tinkler
Ertugral Appointed Technical Director & Caretaker Coach
The Turkish Coach’s Poor Recent Record
City Snap Up South Africa Under 20 Captain

The UEFA A and CAF A Licensed coach had spent 3.5 seasons in the role after returning to the club.

City have won just three of their 10 PSL matches this season and languish 12th in the league table. He had previously led City to finishing places of second, fourth and fifth.

Ertugral Appointed Technical Director & Caretaker Coach

Cape Town City have officially appointed Muhsin Ertugral as their interim Head Coach for the remainder of the 2024/25 season. The 65-year-old Turkish-German will also hold the role of Technical Director.

He will work with the technical team already in place of Diogo Peral, Lebogang Manyama and Lee Miles, among others.

Although he has not been in a head coach role for a number of years, he was working as the Technical Advisor for the Turkish national team.

The Turkish Coach’s Poor Recent Record

One alarming factor about Ertugral’s appointment is his recent record as a head coach. His last 28 matches leading a team having seen 15 defeats.

His most recent head coach job was at Maritzburg United where he lost all five of his matches in charge. Before that, he took a paltry 18 points from 17 matches in charge of Ajax Cape Town.

City Snap Up South Africa Under 20 Captain

Cape Town City have made their first move of the January transfer window by signing South African U20 captain Patrick Autata. The midfielder arrived from TS Galaxy where he had featured in the DStv Diski Challenge side at times.

He recently excelled in the Under 20 COSAFA Cup and made the best XI of the group stages. It is unlikely that he will feature for the first team at City just yet but his presence alongside recent Chelsea trialist Emile Witbooi will boost the reverse side’s prospects.