Cape Town – Bloemfontein Celtic's media officer, Sello Nduna, has admitted that Steve Komphela's move to Golden Arrows on Friday caught the club by surprise.

After parting ways with Kaizer Chiefs towards the end of the 2017/18 season, Komphela joined Siwelele in June, signing a two-year deal, with an additional one-year option.

He went on to claim the Coach of the Month award for August, steering Celtic to seventh place in the Premiership standings at the halfway mark, level on 21 points with his former employers, Chiefs.

However, with doubts remaining over the future ownership of the club and a limited transfer budget ahead of the transfer window, Komphela decided to accept the offer of Arrows.

"That's a difficult one," Nduna was quoted as saying by KickOff website. "We have not really discussed this much. This caught us off guard, but we will have to meet urgently.

"We will meet sometime next week to have a discussion about this, but as things stand Lehlohonolo Seema, John Maduka and Simon Gopane will take the team through their paces.

"To be quite honest with you, we thought that Steve was the right man for the team. But we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for the transformation he brought within the team. He transformed the team, so we just want to wish him the best going forward.

"We thank him for the work he did with us in a very short space of time."