With February kicking off on Wednesday, I found it apt to give Cape Town Spurs star Ashley Cupido some love after he’s been shooting down everything in the build-up to the month of love and Cupid.
His seven goals in Spurs’ 16 PSL Championship games to date is a sign of an exciting and positive progress being made at Ikamva after some really trying times in their rebuild.
The young forward got his breakthrough during a difficult time with the threat of separation from Ajax Amsterdam high at the time.
The Urban Warriors were a respected talent-development outfit but relegation from the PSL Premiership meant that they had lost their place among the top clubs in the country.
There were obvious budget challenges for the club with everything falling on the shoulders of the local club owner Ari Efstathiou.
The chairman had a reputation of being a “stingy former CA, who is tight with money and doesn’t understand football”.
He always had his brother Alexi by his side, who also had a bad reputation as “out of touch and clueless” about the game.
According to whispers in the football fraternity, their demise was almost guaranteed with the two brothers at the helm.
Fortunately they had club legend and former striker Nathan Paulse, who had returned to Ikamva, working with the next generation in the ABC Motsepe team, which has traditionally served as the club’s reserve.
He immediately recommended that Ashley Cupido, along with Rushwin Dortley, Khaya Mfecane, Chumani Butsaka and goalkeeper Lincoln Vyver be promoted to the first team.
Things didn’t work out immediately and relegation became a real threat, which would have seen the club join the reserves in the Safa Second Division.
Ajax decided to cut ties with Efstathiou and the club was renamed Cape Town Spurs in 2020, which was the name of the club that merged with Seven Stars to form Ajax CT.
Paulse was promoted to the first team to assist Ian Taylor on his return to the club from China.
They had a three-year plan and that group of youngsters were set up as the main building blocks of their vision to get the Ikamva back up to the Premiership.
Of the changes at the club, Paulse tells the Daily Voice: “Ashley, Lincoln, Rushwin were at least supported to succeed by the brains trust at the club already back then. They are proving to be the cream of the squad along with Chumani, Khaya.”
The five players have all since become regulars in the SA national teams at different levels which was a sign of things to come.
Paulse and Taylor were, however, fired before they could even finish the season and they were replaced by journeyman coach Dylan Deane and a new technical team.
Deane didn’t last long either and the club decided to bring in Shaun Bartlett, who made his name as a goalscorer with the original CT Spurs in the 90s and became an SA football icon.
It was the perfect situation for young Cupido who has taken full advantage of having Bartlett and Paulse as mentors.
Cupido tells the Daily Voice after Monday’s 2-0 win over All Stars: “For the past two seasons, I’ve been trying to put myself in a better position on and off the field.”
Enter the Urban Warriors into the Top 3❤️🔥![CDATA[]]>👊#CapeTownSpurs#UrbanWarriors#MotsepeFoundationChampionship#OURYOUTHOURFUTURE pic.twitter.com/PBAAsLR0Zv
— Cape Town Spurs FC (@CapeTownSpursFC) January 30, 2023
The 21-year-old opened the scoring for the Urban Warriors to bring his league total to seven goals. Boitumelo Radiopane scored the second to bring his total for the club to three since returning from injury over the festive season.
Cupido says that his personal target for the season is 15 goals which he might be able to achieve with half the campaign still to play, but added that promotion is the priority.
He explains: “We have a good team, we must just keep scoring and keeping clean sheets and stay tight at the back. After that, anything is possible.”
There is nobody who is more excited about Spurs and Cupido’s progress than Paulse, who says: “He [Cupido] was a raw talent who had an eye for goal and scored many goals for us in ABC which showed this ability. He is also a natural athlete which was also a great asset to work with in NFD.
“It’s really great to see the current Spurs squad relying heavily on Academy graduates past and present. Clayton Daniels, Nazier Allie, Jarrod Moroole and the likes of Leo Thetani and Liam Bern.”
Spurs are right up there now in third place with just three points and two teams standing in their way to the the top of the standings after 16 matches.
This week they will travel to the league leaders Polokwane City on Saturday where a result could set them up nicely at the top and they can shift their focus to the Nedbank last 32.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za