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Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
OUTGOING Highlanders coach, Erol Akbay, has revealed that the club will always be dear to him despite the fact he has opted against staying at Bosso.
Akbay was set to handle his last assignment at Bosso against Caps United yesterday and is set to leave for his home, Netherlands this week.
The Dutchman said despite the hiccups that saw him struggle to achieve his targets at Bosso he will cherish his two-year stay at the club. In a wide ranging interview with Sunday Sports, Akbay said financial struggles at the club have forced him to quit.
He revealed he is scouting for a job on the continent and in Asia.
“I enjoyed my stay at Highlanders but I will not be staying because it would be difficult to achieve much with the current financial problems bedeviling the club. On the whole my first time in Africa has been a worthwhile experience and my next assignment will be in Africa or Asia but not in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Akbay said lack of quality arsenal at Bosso made it difficult for him to achieve his targets, adding making it to the top four last season came as a surprise to him. He added that finishing in the top six this season would be a job well done considering the quality of the squad.
Akbay revealed that this year he was let down by the executive who had promised that no player would move during the midseason transfer window but to his surprise the break saw the departure of three strikers, Prince Dube, who moved to South Africa, Rodreck Mutuma who moved to Yadah and Equatorial Guinean striker Manuel Obiang Esono Buale whose contract was terminated.
“We agreed no player will move during that period but when I took a three week leave, I came back to find three strikers gone and we had to start afresh trying out new combinations but because of the congested fixtures list, playing midweek games, we found ourselves with little time to experiment outside official games. We had to try an experiment with each game, if we lose we discard that and if we win we would continue unlike last year when we had the luxury of playing one game a week after the departure of Knox Mutizwa and Bruce Kangwa,” he said.
Despite being impressed by the strong black and white army that backs Bosso, Akbay said he was dismayed supporters deserted the team at a point when it needed them the most. He said at the beginning of the season he had expressly told fans they would play a crucial role in the success of the team and failing to pitch during the hard times made him question the supporters’ love for Bosso.
“Yes, the supporters are passionate but they were not coming to the stadium when the team needed them most. That made me question whether they know their role as fans. I think the question they should ask themselves is “How important is the club to me?” and then act accordingly.
“Fans can lift the spirits of players in the worst of times but if you just desert the team then I don’t know what role you would be playing as a supporter,” added Akbay.
Akbay said he got to build a close relationship with Cosmas “Tsano” Zulu after he was assigned to be his guide during his early days however, adding that did not cloud him in their professional relationship.
He also praised Amini Soma-Phiri for being a good coach saying their relationship only turned bad when Phiri tried to “cheat” him.
The Dutchman said they had a good working relationship that was founded on mutual respect and it is unfortunate things ended on a bad note. Soma-Phiri’s recent tenure at Bosso ended in a sour note as he resigned following accusations by Akbay that he was sabotaging the team.
“I think someone told him that if the team keeps on losing then he will be given the job. His actions incensed me and there was no alternative but for him to go. I did not use him as a scapegoat to save myself but I was disappointed with his actions. I could not accept what he had done because that meant we would be unable to work properly together,” he said.
Akbay revealed he was dismayed with the way the executive handled the fallout between his two assistants adding he would have preferred to have handle it on his own. He said he had been managing the situation to ensure there is unity in the camp despite the fractious relations between Soma-Phiri and Zulu.
“I think the suspension of my assistants had a negative impact on our campaign. The two had an acrimonious relationship but I had managed to handle the situation and it was unfortunate the executive decided to come up with that tribunal, they did not even ask me for my opinion on how to handle the matter. I don’t think it was necessary at the end of the day it affected the players negatively,” said Akbay.
He said while he might have made unsavoury comments about the executive, he remains on good terms with everyone as they understand it is the business side of things he was commenting on, which is where they did not agree.
Commenting on local players, Akbay said like most African players he feels they are good on the technical side of the game but when it came to the tactical approaches they struggle. He said at Bosso he was highly impressed by the talents of Kangwa, Mutizwa and Dube, who proved to be a quick learners while Godfrey Makaruse is also good but is being haunted by injuries that have seen him miss several games.
The Dutchman said while he understood calls to incorporate younger players into the squad, it was difficult to just throw the youngsters into the deep end adding he had to balance the squad bringing in the likes of Dube, Bukhosi Ncube, Brian Banda and Charlton Siamalonga to fuse with older players.
He said local referees don’t seem to know what injury time is as they do not adequately make up for it and players have developed a bad habit of feigning injuries knowing the time won’t be compensated through added time.
“The Zifa Referees’ Committee has a lot to do in that area because referees are lacking there. I think is too much off-field interference in the local and there are a lot of improvements that need to go into the general organisation of local football,” he said.
derick.khumalo