Few clubs in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League have experienced a more dramatic decline this season than TelOne FC.
Just last year, the Gweru-based side were one of the league’s success stories. Under Herbert Maruwa, the WiFi Boys defied expectations to finish fifth, earning praise for their organisation, discipline and ability to compete with some of Zimbabwean football’s traditional powerhouses.
Twelve months later, TelOne find themselves rooted at the bottom of the table, a position few could have predicted at the start of the season.
Even more alarming is their home record. Ascot Stadium, once a venue where TelOne built their success, has become the scene of a nightmare campaign.
The club has lost eight league matches at home, a statistic that has transformed their own backyard into one of the most unforgiving grounds in the country.
The obvious question is: What went wrong?
In an attempt to stop the slide, TelOne management made the difficult decision to part ways with Maruwa, the same coach who had masterminded the club’s impressive fifth-place finish last season.
The expectation was that a change in leadership would spark a revival.
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Saul Chaminuka was brought in to steady the ship and rescue the season.
However, the results have shown that changing the coach was not enough.
The struggles have continued under Chaminuka, suggesting that the problems run deeper than the technical bench.
If the club hierarchy believed Maruwa was the problem, the team’s continued poor performances indicate there are wider issues that need urgent attention.
What makes the situation even more puzzling is that TelOne did not lose the bulk of the squad that impressed last season. The club’s core remained largely intact.
The notable departures were Washington Navaya and Milton Chimedza, two players who were instrumental in helping TelOne secure a top-five finish.
Their exits undoubtedly left a gap in the team, but it is difficult to argue that losing just two key players should result in a complete collapse.
Successful teams lose influential players every season. The challenge is always to replace them and evolve. TelOne’s dramatic decline suggests that either the impact of those departures was underestimated or the replacements have failed to deliver.
Yet even that explanation does not fully account for the crisis unfolding at Ascot.
In one of the most revealing comments of the season, Chaminuka recently admitted that the team’s home ground may have become a psychological obstacle.
“I think that’s the general feeling within the whole team, the players and myself included. I think we need to get away from this pitch and play elsewhere,” he said.
“If we are thinking of winning, you cannot talk about superstition, but when a team has lost eight games at home, that must mean something.”
Those remarks speak volumes.
Whether Chaminuka was referring to the state of the pitch, the atmosphere surrounding home matches or simply the mental scars created by repeated defeats, his comments reveal a club searching for answers in unusual places.
Football is not played only on the pitch. Confidence, belief and mentality are often as important as tactics. When players walk onto the field expecting something to go wrong, performances inevitably suffer.
The danger for TelOne is that Ascot Stadium has become associated with failure.
Every home game now comes with the burden of previous disappointments.
Instead of enjoying the comfort of familiar surroundings, players may be carrying the weight of expectation and fear.
But while psychology may be part of the problem, it cannot be the entire explanation.
The club’s management must also examine recruitment, player performance, leadership structures and overall planning.
Sacking a coach is often the quickest response available to struggling clubs, but it rarely solves deeper problems on its own.
The reality is that TelOne’s current predicament is the result of collective failure.
Management, coaches and players all share responsibility for a season that has unravelled with alarming speed.
There is still enough football remaining for the club to escape relegation trouble.
However, the recovery must begin immediately.
The supporters who packed Ascot Stadium last season dreaming of further progress are now watching a team battling to survive.
They deserve more than excuses.
They deserve solutions.
For a club that appeared to be building something special only a year ago, this season has become a cautionary tale about how quickly fortunes can change in football.
The dismissal of Maruwa, the arrival of Chaminuka, the loss of Navaya and Chimedza and the astonishing collapse at home have all combined to create one of the biggest mysteries of the 2026 PSL season.
If TelOne cannot find answers soon, what began as a disappointing campaign could end in the ultimate disaster — relegation.
And if even the coach believes the team needs to escape Ascot Stadium to rediscover its winning touch, then the crisis may be deeper than anyone first imagined.
