DYNAMOS veteran midfielder Murape Murape could be set for a coaching role at the Castle Premiership football champions with indications he might be given the second assistant coach’s role.
HENRY MHARA SPORTS REPORTER
DeMbare have a new technical set-up led by David Mandigora who is assisted by Tonderai Ndiraya while Gift Muzadzi is the new goalkeepers’ coach.
They have taken over from Kalisto Pasuwa who resigned immediately after winning his fourth league title with the club last year.
The new technical team met with the players for the first time at a local restaurant in the capital yesterday where five new players were unveiled.
New players that were unveiled are former Caps United forward Kelvin Bulaji, ex-DC Academy player Carlos Rusere, goalkeeper Tonderai Mateyaunga, who was with ZPC Kariba last season, Nigel Gandari, a Dynamos junior, and Godknows Murwira from Shabanie Mine.
Club secretary-general Webster Chikengezha, during an address to the players after the unveiling ceremony, indicated that there would be a second assistant and they had approached Biggie Zuze for the post.
However, it appears Zuze still wants to coach Triangle and is waiting for the Lowveld club to offer him a new contract so that he can compare with the one he has been offered by Dynamos. It is most likely that Triangle would offer him a better contract and it seems the financially-troubled Dynamos have been made aware of it.
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An insider yesterday said the Dynamos executive have almost lost hope in their pursuit of Zuze and are now considering putting Murape in the role.
“Zuze has not been very forthcoming and they are now weighing other options for the assistant coach. One of the options is to promote Murape Murape to the role because they feel his playing time is now up. He featured and played well in some games last season, but the general feeling is that Murape should now retire and get another role in the technical set-up,” said the source.
When asked about Murape’s future, Chikengezha said: “He has been in touch with the technical team about the role they want to give him going forward.”
Ndiraya said: “We cannot just discard him because he has served the club for a long time and so well. The coach would meet with him to map the way forward, but it would be up to him. We all agree that he can give something to the club, as a player or in another capacity, but like I said it’s him who will choose.”
Murape was one of the host of senior players influential last season who did not attend yesterday’s event, and whose futures are unclear.
Others who were conspicuous by their absence are Devon Chafa, Tafadzwa Rusike, Simba Sithole, Rodreck Mutuma, Russel Madamombe and Thomas Magorimbo while Themba Ndlovu, Tawanda Muparati and Ronald Chitiyo have already left the club. All the players absent had their contracts expiring on December 31.
Chikengezha said he is still negotiating with a number of players on the list with the hope of renewing their contracts.
He, however, said his efforts have been hampered by the players’ agents who are demanding “extraordinary” signing on fees.
Ndiraya said he was happy with the new additions to the team and hope that the executive would convince the other players to renew their contracts.
“We are quite satisfied with the new additions and we hope that they would take up the challenge to play for Dynamos and quickly adjust to the team culture.
“A number of times new players find it difficult to adjust at Dynamos because there is lots of pressure that comes with playing for Dynamos.
“Most of the players we inherited, that are on our list have been there in the last two to three years so what we are going to do is just to add just a few faces to replace the few that are leaving. Last season the team had 35 players in total, but the management has made a resolution that because we are not participating in the Caf Champions League, the squad must be reduced to 30, including the five juniors as required by the PSL,” said Ndiraya.
He added: “We need all those guys, they are quality players. I know because I have worked with them in the past. Any coach would want to have those players in their team and from the list most of them have won three league titles with the team and playing regularly so the decision lies on them.
“They have to make a decision on whether they want to continue winning the league title with Dynamos or getting a new challenge altogether.
“If we had our choice we would want to have all the players back because we had a good team last year. But it’s something that is not beyond our control. In the event that they don’t come back, we have to move on and look for possible replacements and some of those are the ones we have unveiled today.”
