Bosso delay timebomb

Highlanders’ first team assistant coach Bekithemba Ndlovu, goalkeepers’ trainer Tembo Chuma and welfare manager Amin Soma-Phiri were on one-year contracts so did the juniors teams coaches, which expired last year and were not renewed.

Daniel Ngwenya, the Under-14 coach, Gift Lunga Jnr, the Under-16 coach, Siphatho Ncube for the Under-18 and developmental side gaffer Mark Mathe as well as juniors’ manager Smart Moyo are all jobless at the moment.

The challenges of operating with a lone technical man were evidently clear before and during the match against South African giants Mamelodi Sundowns which was played at Barbourfields Stadium on Wednesday that saw Highlanders losing for the first time at Emagumeni in a long time.

Zambian coach Kelvin Kaindu, the only member of the technical team who  signed a two-year contract, openly and honestly bemoaned the delay and said it was putting him and the team in a big disadvantage. After the 2-0 loss to the Brazilians, Kaindu was visibly shaken by the defeat.

So disturbed was the coach that he told journalists in his post-match interview that words were eluding him to describe the pressure that he was going through.

“To be honest with you, I am failing to come up with a proper word that will describe the amount of pressure that I am enduring and going through at the moment. Being alone I have to take care of a squad of about 32 players, do the ball work, train the goalkeepers and as you saw also put up cones for the warm up,” said a clearly emotional Kaindu.

However, former Bosso coach Cosmos Zulu felt Kaindu’s boys did very well under the circumstances.

“Those boys only trained at Luveve Stadium for three days while Mamelodi Sundowns never took a break and personally I was impressed with their show and believe me, if they get three more friendly matches, come March when the season starts, that team will trample over everything,” said Zulu.

He, however, criticised the delay in the appointment of coaches and concurred that it might come back to haunt the club in future.

“Winning is 95 percent good preparation with presentation (match day) taking just five percent,” he said.

During the Wednesday match Kaindu would occasionally go to the fourth official for the substitutions, in the process taking his eyes off the field of play. It also made a very sad sight to see him now and again turning to his left on the bench, probably trying to seek for an opinion from his assistants, only to see team doctor Xolani Ndlovu.

Contrary to events in the Highlanders camp, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane had a technical staff complement of four and before the match, he never got into the field to put cones like his Highlanders counterpart.

The former Bafana Bafana coach even boasted after the match that proper organisation saw them being victorious.

While the effects might not be seen at the moment, modern football requires that teams have proper pre-season training with total concentration from both the players and the technical team in an effort to come up with a well-oiled system that will be able to withstand all the pressures during the season.

The juniors might also be heavily affected and reports that about eight youngsters are already training somewhere else should be a cause of concern for the Highlanders executive, led by Peter Dube.

During the club annual general meeting Dube assured members that all was in order in terms of filling up vacant positions in the technical line-up before telling the media that appointments will be made soon after the elections when all positions would have been filled.

This, he said, will enable every executive member to have an input in the selection process but the big question will always be, had Kaindu’s contract ended in December last year, will Highlanders not have started their pre-season training?

Indications are however, that most of the technical team members are likely to be retained save for one, who is accused of inciting players to revolt last year.

Those actions saw the team embarrassingly bow out of the lucrative Mbada Diamonds Cup at the hands of Monomotapa who came from behind to win 3-2 at the Colliery Stadium.