The ManicaPost
Ray Bnade
Senior Reporter
IT is one of the sad realities of this game called football that when a team performs well, it is individual players who get the credit first, but when the team performs dismally, it is the coach who becomes the first target of criticism.
Manica Diamonds’ coach, Johanisi ‘Dutch Mentor’ Nhumwa is no exception!
No doubt, at his disposal, Nhumwa has one of the most star-studded team in the domestic top-flight league, capable of producing two competitive Premiership clubs.
For a club that ended on an impressive fifth position on the table in its debut Premiership season and now managed to assemble a team that draw the attention of all through good results early in the season, dreaming of the title is really not farfetched.
But given the early impressive results, epitomised by the 6-2 drubbing of Caps United at Sakubva, only to fizzle into disappointing draws in matches thereafter, there is now skepticism among the Gem Boys fans and fear of being taken down the garden path is now growing with each passing week.
The Gem Boys, as Manica Diamonds are now known by a wider section of domestic football followers, have settled for morale sapping draws in the last three matches they have played, thereby salvaging three out of a possible nine points.
Manica Diamonds drew against Norman Mapeza’s FC Platinum at Sakubva Stadium, before settling for a three-all stalemate against Chicken Inn away at Luveve Stadium.
They came back to Fortress Sakubva for a disappointing goalless stalemate against Bulawayo Chiefs in a match they should count themselves lucky to have walked away with a point.
While Manica Diamonds are not really in a bad position on the log standings where they occupy the third position, dissatisfaction is growing after back-to-back stalemates.
It is the draw against Bulawayo Chiefs last Sunday at Sakubva Stadium that saw fans openly parading their mistrust in Nhumwa’s tactics and approach to coaching.
The Dutch Total Football approach, which earned him the moniker The Dutch Mentor, is now being questioned as the Gem Boys continue dropping points on the trot.
Not only fans are now questioning Nhumwa’s credentials to take the team to the Promised Land, Post Sport has it on good authority that the club leadership recently read the riot act on the former Masvingo United coach, mainly due to his poor player management skills.
Investigations by this newspaper revealed that player-coach relations at Manica Diamonds are at their lowest ebb, as Nhumwa employs archaic unprofessional treatment of players that include unending insults and threats.
In fact, on a number occasions, some players have been restrained after deciding to physically attack the coach owing to unbearable insults during training.
Chelsea and Manica Diamonds fan, Paul Sigauke said: “I think it is now clear that we can evade relegation with Johanisi Nhumwa as the head coach. However, for us to think that he will bring us the title to Mutare could be Utopian. The team needs a coach with a better approach to player management.
“We have a good squad that can beat any team in the Premier League on any given day, but we are now discovering that Nhumwa will not be able to achieve what we want.”
As if that was enough, his eloquence or lack of it in post-match interviews, has seen fans casting aspersions on his capabilities.
“When I listened to one of his interviews on radio, I was actually taken aback as to how a well-meaning football coach, heading the technical bench of a team with title ambitions, can fail to thread a comprehensive sentence.
“While we cannot judge one by their eloquence in English, we all know that these coaches undergo training using the Queen’s language and that makes us doubt some of their credentials when they give interviews,” said fellow Manica Diamonds fan, Gift ‘Chiboys’ Mugeri.
