Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
UNDER-pressure Dynamos coach Lloyd “Ma Blanyo” Chigowe indicated soon after his team’s Castle Lager Premier Soccer League defeat to flamboyant Scottland at Rufaro on Sunday that he had already surrendered his future to fate.
But after dabbling with appointing a replacement for him on Monday, the Glamour Boys chiefs have handed the lanky coach a life-line.
It is, however, a very thin life-line, one that is akin to walking on ice.
This is because Chigowe only has one option and that is to beat bottom-of-the-table Triangle United away at Gibbo on Sunday.
Chigowe is a very unlucky man.
He virtually didn’t have anything on his war chest. His wish list during a wild off-season transfer market in which Dynamos lost more than their spine never got any ticks.
The ex-Zimbabwe Under-17 coach is a man who had to go out of his way to even have the “left-overs” he then got to stuff-up what had remained at the club.
Predictably, things haven’t gone the way they should at the biggest football club in the country.
The Glamour Boys have been a mockery of the storied institution that remains the only one in the country to have reached the CAF Champions League final and have the highest number of league titles.
Dynamos have won a single game in 10 outings. They have lost four and drawn five.
Chigowe’s men have conceded five times and scored only twice, one of the strikes coming off an own goal by an opponent’s defender, to sit a single place above the drop zone by virtue of having a superior goal difference to both CAPS United and Yadah Stars, with whom they are tied on eight points.
In granting Chigowe a stay of execution, the Dynamos management roped in the club’s former player Takesure Chinyama as the strikers’ coach.
Chinyama, who played club football in Poland and also began his coaching career there with Polish academy KS Bibiczanka, was a member of Kalisto Pasuwa’s championship-winning side in 2014.
The inclusion of Chinyama into a technical department that also has Mark Mathe is meant to breathe some life into their blunt strike-force.
Chinyama, a beast of a striker back in his days in Poland and later on at Dynamos, has immediately started his offi-cial duties ahead of the trip to Triangle.
His coming is expected to change the club’s fortunes in front of the goal.
All of Dynamos’ strikers, including Valentine Kadonzvo, Elton Chikona, Ransom Chingwara, Ephraim Gwekwerere and Ghanaian Frank Agyemang, are yet to find the back of the net 10 games into the term.
“We have roped in Takesure Chinyama as our strikers’ coach. He will not only deal with the forwards but has come to strengthen our technical team as a whole.
“He is an experienced individual with loads of exposure in the best leagues in the world. We hope to see things improving with his coming in,” said executive chairman Moses Maunganidze.
“Chinyama knows the Dynamos geography quite well, having been part of the playing system not-so-long-ago.
“He knows the pressure that comes with being in the deep end for a team called Dynamos. He knows the situations well, and he will certainly impart those skills to the young strikers we have on the team.
“Chinyama is a well-travelled man and can also add a lot of value in the overall aspects of the game in collaboration with the individuals already in the set-up led by Lloyd Chigowe.”
Chinyama has to make out the magic not just for him to instantly get going but to save Chigowe’s job.
Maunganidze didn’t mince his words when confirming Chigowe would go one way if Dynamos failed to reap the maximum at Gibbo.
“The technical set-up is still pretty much the same. Lloyd Chigowe is leading the ship. But definitely, the technical team will leave if they fail to win at Triangle.
“It’s as simple as that. We just need a win against Triangle and nothing else,” added Maunganidze.
“The fans have suffered and everyone else has suffered as well. We have a position already and for a start, we just need to win at Triangle. That is what we have decided.”
Dynamos should pick up the maximum points to carry some confidence into the Harare Derby fixture against equally struggling CAPS United the following week.
And that’s what has pushed the club bosses into demanding an outright win at Triangle on Sunday.
On his part, Chigowe has tried his best, chopping and changing both players and team formation.
But the product has remained the same — disappointment.
He acknowledges that “this is Dynamos and no matter the justification, the Glamour Boys have to show up.”
“Dynamos fans always need results and they are justified to express their disappointment like the way they did today,” said Chigowe after their seemingly routine 1-0 loss to Scottland.
They have been losing their matches 0-1 whenever they are not drawing.
“I am prepared to take whatever the club bosses will decide pertaining to the position at the team. The results have not been coming.”
He is also aware that he was supposed to be released early this week after an emergency meeting was held by the club management on Sunday night.
Fixtures:
Saturday: MWOS v Telone (Ngoni)
GreenFuel v Manica Diamonds (GreenFuel Arena), CAPS United v Herentals (Rufaro), Ngezi Platinum v ZPC Kariba (Baobab), Bikita Minerals v Yadah (Gibbo)
Sunday: Kwekwe United v Chicken Inn (Bata), Scottland v Simba Bhora (Rufaro)
Triangle v Dynamos (Gibbo), Highlanders v FC Platinum (Barbourfields)
