Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has admitted that Mamelodi Sundowns hold all the trump cards in the transfer market after Amakhosi missed out on signing Teboho Mokoena, who chose Chloorkop over Naturena.

While Sundowns used the January transfer window to further strengthen their squad with the signings of Mokoena, Surprise Ralani and Erwin Saavedra, Chiefs failed to make a single signing.

Despite being heavily linked to several players – including Mokoena, Siyethemba Sithebe and Sipho Mbule – they failed to nail any deal and announced the contract extensions of seven of their players on deadline day.

Speaking ahead of the return to football at the Nedbank Cup media launch on Thursday night, Chiefs coach Baxter admitted that Amakhosi are struggling to compete with the Brazilians in the market.

“It’s easy to have these perceptions, given what’s gone on. So, I can’t say I don’t understand what the supporters are feeling. But I can assure them that there’s a lot more that goes on in terms of targeting people, getting knocked back, realising that in the open market, there’s one club that holds all the trump cards. If we are interested in a player that they’re interested in, pretty the chances are that he is going to go there,” Baxter said.

“We’ve got to be smart in our recruitment. I think we’ve tried to do that and I think probably what’s been available to us, we’ve worked out that at this moment in time, it won’t that fill that gap between us and Sundowns. In that respect, I don’t think it’s a lack of ambition. I think it’s realism hitting home.

“We need to keep working on that. We’ve got to work on it for two reasons. One, that’s what an ambitious football club does. And, two, we’ve got to keep sending signals to our supporters that we are not resting on our laurels, we are not waiting for next year to come around, that we are active in the market. I can assure everybody that there has been that conversation, but I will be having a meeting to do a debrief on what has gone on in this window.”

Asked what he thought of Amakhosi’s transfer window, he said: “If you said would it have been nice to get Teboho Mokoena? Yeah, it would have been very nice, because I believe that our squad is developing, but you can always use the injection of a player, but that has a price. I get that supporters enjoy that.”