Troubled Dynamos yesterday appointed former midfielder Calisto Pasuwa as the team’s acting coach, subsequently ending Lloyd Mutasa’s six months reign at the club.
Club chairman Kennedy Mubaiwa yesterday confirmed Pasuwa had been appointed on a temporary basis until the end of the season. Former midfielder Tonderai Ndiraya who is also the club’s junior coach will assist Pasuwa while Tichaona Diya retained his post as the goalkeeper’s coach.
“We terminated Lloyd Mutasa’s contract today (yesterday) because he had failed to meet the target on his contract. His contract was clear that he should get 23 points from 10 games and if that failed, it would be terminated, so we just referred back to his contract and we couldn’t confirm it.
“Calisto Pasuwa will be the acting coach up to the end of the season and he will be assisted by Ndiraya and Tichaona Diya who will remain the goalkeeper’s coach. We will assess their performance up to the end of the season and if a need arises then we will bring suitable replacements,” said Mubaiwa.
Just like his predecessor, Pasuwa and his new technical team were also given a target for the season, failure of which they will be shown the door.
“It will need a miracle now to win the league because we have lost a lot of matches. We have asked the new technical team to finish the league in a good position, at most, second or third position on the log. We still have 11 games to play so I think they can achieve that target. We are still sorting out their contracts and all will be clear by tomorrow (today) when we get back to the office,” added Mubaiwa.
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The Dynamos chairman said he has faith in Pasuwa to save the team’s season which was faltering by each passing game. Interestingly, Pasuwa was Mutasa’s assistant coach at Highway and then at Kiglon.
The two, who were once dubbed “inseparable” then, could not join hands at Dynamos after Pasuwa refused an offer that was tabled to him by the then Farai Munetsi-led executive.
“We gave Mutasa and his technical team a chance, but we were not making any progress as a team. We were booted out of the Caf Champions league in the first round. We were booted out of the BancABC and we even lost to Blue Ribbon home and away, a team which has been losing to all the other teams in the league. On Sunday we almost lost to Black Mambas. The winning culture had been lost in the team and if we had not acted now we could have finished the season at position seven or worse than that,” said Mubaiwa.
The charismatic chairman added: “I have faith in the new coach. I believe we will win again. Without taking anything from Mutasa, I have a feeling that it is Pasuwa who was doing all the dirty work when the two were working together and now the other one has been exposed. As a club we want to start playing good football and start winning again.” Mutasa, with his lieutenants Masimba Dinyero and Ralph Kawondera, yesterday morning visited the Raylton Sports Club where the team was training and are said to have bid an emotional farewell to the players.
Pasuwa did not attend the training session yesterday which was overseen by his assistants Ndiraya and Diya.
The Harare giants lie fourth on the table with 30 points, a massive nine adrift of log leaders FC Platinum who have a game in hand. Mutasa took over from Elvis Chiweshe at the start of the season and after some impressive pre-season matches which saw the team collecting all trophies on offer, and outplaying MC Algiers 4-1 in front of a packed Rufaro Stadium in the Caf Champions league, he won the hearts of the club’s hard-core supporters who literally regarded him as a Messiah.
However, Mutasa could not maintain that good run when the season started and watched helplessly as his team lost to Kiglon in the first league game. Some indifferent performances followed thereafter and Mutasa’s relationship with the fans soured. A loss to nine-man Motor Action which saw the Harare giants crashing out of the BancABC where they were the defending champions and a disappointing performance against Black Mambas on Sunday tipped the scales and the soft spoken gaffer was eventually shown the exit.