BY HENRY MHARA
DYNAMOS are close to a reunion with prodigal son Simba Nhivi as coach Tonderai Ndiraya continues to make full use of the transfer window to beef up his squad with players that he hopes can turn around the fortunes of the clubs.
Just days after the club confirmed the return of another former player, Archford Gutu, Ndiraya announced yesterday that they were negotiating with Nhivi, who is expected to sign a contract next week.
The former Caps United and Mamelodi Sundowns player is a free agent after he was fired at Ngezi Platinum Stars in May on allegations of leading a player mutiny.
“We spoke about the issue of beefing up our squad, and we were never shy about that, so we now have Archford Gutu within our ranks. He has joined us on a short-term contract, up to the end of the season. He is coming to help us finish off the season.
We are, however, still waiting to get his international clearance and the management is working hard to ensure that his papers are sorted as soon as possible,” Ndiraya said.
“We are also in discussion with Simba Nhivi. He should also be joining us soon. By next week, he would have joined the team so those are the guys we are quite sure we are going to get.”
Ndiraya said his club was also close to signing two other experienced players in the transfer window, as he seeks to bolster the squad into a competitive outfit.
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“We are negotiating with their clubs, and I’m not at liberty to disclose their names because they are still contracted to the teams. I’m hoping that by the end of next week, we will have some good responses from those teams.”
But it is the coming of Gutu and the potential coming of Nhivi that has excited Ndiraya.
Gutu took part in Dynamos’ pre-season training, but disappeared in the days leading to the start of the league season, with reports that the two parties had failed to reach an agreement.
Reports suggested that the club had offered Gutu a long-term contract, but the player wanted a short-term contract. It appears the midfielder found his way.
Nonetheless, Ndiraya is grateful that they had finally found each other, and he believes that the arrival of the attacking midfielder would ignite their season.
“When he played locally, he was one of the best attacking midfielders around during that time and from what we have seen so far at training, of course, we still need to work on his fitness, but in terms of the creativity that we are looking for in the final third, I think he is one player who can give us that.
“That has been our major weakness, because in the last games, we have done well in terms of the defensive part of the game, but it’s the final third that we are really coming short. So, the coming in of Archford will surely give us more quality in that department, and we hope to be creating more chances and scoring more goals.”
Goal scoring has also been one of the team’s major weaknesses, with just one goal to show for their efforts in the last five matches.
“Since my arrival here, our statistics in terms of goals scored has not been really good. We are managing one goal on average per match, which is not a good sign for a good team like ours, so Simba’s coming will hopefully give us more goals and help us win matches. He is quite experienced and when he left Ngezi Platinum, he had scored a goal. So, we are confident that he will bring that to the team. He is someone who possesses lots of experience and we hope that can really assist us in front of goal. That is where we also have been coming short. We have been creating some chances which, with some experiences, we could have put away. His experience will help some youngsters and help our captain (Edward Sadomba), who has been battling alone in that department. So, we hope they will combine well and give us the results that we are looking for.”
