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Chigowe gets Dynamos job

Sport
LLOYD “Mablanyo” Chigowe has been offered the coaching job at Dynamos as a reward for rescuing the club from relegation last season.

LLOYD “Mablanyo” Chigowe has been offered the coaching job at Dynamos as a reward for rescuing the club from relegation last season.

BY HENRY MHARA

The unassuming coach was appointed interim coach in September to replace Lloyd Mutasa when the team was fighting for dear life.

He had seven matches to save the Harare giants from demotion, and he pulled the rabbit out of the hat to rescue the team with three games to spare.

Dynamos eventually finished 11th on the log standings, four rungs away from the last relegation slot.

Chigowe confirmed to NewsDaySport yesterday that he has been offered a substantive post.

“I have been offered the job, and in principle I have accepted. We are going to work out on the final details of the contract probably tomorrow (today),” he said.

DeMbare had a season to forget and it reflected at yesterday’s Soccer Star of the Year function when for the first time in more than a decade, when none of their players made it into the calendar for the best 11 players of the season.

Chigowe promised to make wholesale changes to the team, with the future of most of the senior squad in doubt.

Top on the list of players on the departure lounge is the quartet of Kingstone Nkhatha, Obey Mwerahari, Peace Makaha and Marshall Machazane – players who were suspended by the club at the end of the season for allegedly inciting a squad revolt over bonuses.

Skipper Ocean Mushure and Denver Mukamba have played truant for the most part of the season and they are also likely to be released.

“The four players that have been involved in the disciplinary hearings, I don’t think they are coming back. There are others who are leaving, but it will not be professional for me to announce their names before they have been advised by the club. People should expect a robust and a competitive Dynamos in 2019. I have already started the process of identifying and bringing in players. Some of them are top class, some of them experienced and some are young, but very talented. So that will be the combination,” Chigowe said.

He added: “We need to revamp and I seriously mean it. This is a professional job and it is not about sentiments and if I don’t deliver, my head is on the block, so we will definitely bring quality into the team. We are already on the move, I have my scouts on the ground who have helped me identify some good players and I also have my own players that I have identified. If we do things fairly, we will always come up with a very strong Dynamos side.”

Asked about his targets next season, Chigowe quipped: “Unfortunately, at Dynamos, the coach does not set the targets, it’s the fans that do that. And they want Dynamos to be number one. We will fight hard to meet their expectations.”