Online Reporter
THE constant change of coaches at Highlanders has not altered the fortunes of the Mighty Bosso since 2007.
Many factors are influencing this bad spell and one of the major contributors is the inability of the players to play for the badge. In modern day football, players either play for the badge, the coach or their manager.
Players, who play for the badge understand the importance of making the fans happy, writing their piece of history by penning down their legendary undying impact like Thulani “Biya” Ncube, Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda, Douglas Mloyi among others.
Players, who play for the coach owe their rise to stardom to that man and will do anything to always be on the right side of the coach.
Most of these players tend to be very close to their mentors and will move from one club to the other following the men they believe.
These have been transferring to other clubs with their coaches.
Players, who play for their managers are the ones who get to places due to good marketing by their management team. Such players can go to any team whether lowly ranked to top teams depending on what their management desires. Such players will religiously take instructions from their managers. These are the players that l suspect are dwarfing the growth of Highlanders Football Club.
Players are now workers and they earn their money whether they are playing or not regardless of the quality of their service to the club.
There is a winning bonus that comes as a motivation but chasing badge objectives gives a player more mileage than the rest.
Divine Lunga was taken from Golden Arrows by Steve Kompela to Mamelodi Sundowns. He played for the badge and never looked back, now he is enjoying life at the team even after the departure of his former coach.
The coaches’ departures at Bosso make it hard for the arriving coaches to trust the available material thereby affecting the growth of local available talent since they will be under pressure to bring results. This rotation has cost Highlanders players like Daniel Msendami, Talent Dube, Hubert Ncube just to mention a few.
It is difficult to ascertain the new player’s intention as he comes through. When players are pushed to the team by influential managers then the coach has less control of such players. A mercenary spirit can haunt the coach if the managers are not happy with selection and their player’s position in the team.
A strong junior policy in the team can quash and eradicate such ills.
Needed for the team to achieve this goal is a very good psychologist, regular game time in front of huge Bosso crowds, motivation in the form of help to the young player’s home economy, close management that monitors player progress till maturity stage among many other control measures.
*Thulani Dube runs Thuts Harsh Touch, is into entertainment in Bulawayo*
