The ManicaPost
Moffat Mungazi
BELATED compliments of the new season, ardent reader! Here’s trusting you enjoyed pleasant festive holidays and wishing you a blessed, blissful and fruitful 2020.
English football giants Liverpool look like they are cruising in top gear and the gait of the spring in their bouncy step has been attributed to coach Jurgen Klopp, the German geezer who hails from the country reputed for its engineering excellence.
The Kop side are now back in the division of the game’s champions and their trainer has masterminded it all.
That they have in the recent past clinched silverware in recording-shredding fashion while posting phenomenal numbers in the process confirms that they are now back among the aristocracy.
An inaugural podium finish in the Premier League era, and a first in three decades — which presently appears a nailed-on inevitability — will surely immortalise this group in the deepest depths of the Reds fanbase’s affections.
Such has been the irresistibly charming Jurgen Klopp effect on Liverpool, even without a hefty budget, that their game has evolved and risen to a whole new level; becoming an awe-inspiring world-beater revered by followers and feared by foes.
But, inversely, where do our domestic trainers stand in terms of making an impact at their respective clubs?
Of late gaffers Kallisto Pasuwa, Kaitano Tembo and Norman Mapeza have been making headlines in foreign lands where their coaching credentials and profiles continue to soar.
The former recently guided Nyasa Big Bullets to a second successive league title triumph (his sixth straight over the past six seasons he has served in sole charge of a team as head coach, including the last four with Dynamos) in Malawi, while Tembo was an MTN8 Cup gold medalist with South Africa’s SuperSport United in 2019.
The latter, after a history-making spell at FC Platinum with a double dosage of the local crown and priming them for a third, before leaving for a new challenge in Mzansi has also made an immediate impact and been a positive influence at his new Chippa United base in the Absa Premiership.
Going into the Christmas break Mapeza, who joined at the beginning of October, had helped lift the club from the bottom to ninth; presiding over seven league games which yielded four wins, one draw and two losses as well as a single win and defeat in the Telkom Knockout Cup.
But just how much is “enough time” for a coach to get their projects going and turn them into success stories? What resources do they need? Do slow starters eventually come right?
Is there need to always bring in players who suit their type of play or they must exploit those available to conform to the system? When can their fingerprints become visible and influence begins to tell on the assignment? For how long can the ever-demanding club hierarchies and hard-to-please fans put up with misfiring coaches?
In a job that usually turns into a revolving door, inevitably coaching casualties become a common occurrence.
During the last Castle Lager Premier Soccer League campaign Luke Masomere, Jairos Tapera and Erol Akbay were jettisoned from their hot seats while Mapeza, Lloyd Chitembwe, Rodwell Dhlakama and Madinda Ndlovu left of their own accord.
At the height of dismissals at Chippa United, the Chilli Boys changed coaches twice in as many weeks; with one lasting only two matches on an interim basis.
Stung by his ephemeral stay in charge, one of the fired coaches once famously remarked: “You just need to go there with a laptop and the tracksuit you are wearing, do not bring anything else”! Overall, the club has now hired 20 coaches since 2011, an average of two per season, with only five taking temporary charge.
For fading giants Dynamos it sometimes becomes circus-like.
They have fired Tonderai “Stanza” Ndiraya, the incumbent, before and rehired him to replace Lloyd “MaBlanyo” Chigowe.
It is even a curious case for Lloyd “Samaita” Mutasa who was once sacked and reinstated in the same season. Sadly, for Samaita it has become more of Sisyphean “curse”. Is this not tantamount to going round in circles, creating a vicious cycle instead of a virtuous circle?
If it is about football that you care let’s share the cheer because we are made for the game, mad about the game!
For interaction send your views, comments and contributions through feedback on WhatsApp or sms to 0736 036 593 or e-mail:[email protected]
