adminEddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Dynamos team manager, Malcom Fourie, says the Glamour Boys could find a way back to greatness again if they take their junior development programme seriously.
The Harare giants are undergoing a rebuilding process and have, so far, bought 15 new players.
However, the squad overhaul is almost a repeat of the process they went through last year, and failed dismally, under Lloyd Chigowe.
Fourie, who is now based in the United Kingdom and is back home on a short vacation, still remembers how he saw successive generations of players growing through the ranks between the 1980s and 2000s.
“The reason why Dynamos is rebuilding every year is because they have forgotten the juniors,’’ he said.
“For any big organisation to be successful, there must be a junior policy where the senior team is fed off, instead of wasting money signing new players every year.’’
Fourie said he was there when the likes of Murape Murape and Desmond Maringwa, who later became influential captains, were nurtured and prepared for the big stage.
He was also the junior side team manager with Clayton Munemo and Biggie Zuze as juniors’ coaches when the club entered into a partnership with Churchill Boys in a project that groomed players such as Eddie Mashiri and Norman Maroto, culminating in the famous “Kidznet” project.
Dynamos currently have a reserve team playing in ZIFA Division Two but, of late, the club have developed a worrying trend where they have been recruiting new players and rebuilding the team every season.
Fourie said it was important to maintain the team culture by getting players through the system.
“To be part of Dynamos is very special and only people with Dynamos blood will understand what it is to play for Dynamos, that is why it’s important to have juniors,’’ he said.
“I can still remember when the likes of Oliver Kateya, David Mandigora, Kuda Muchemeyi, Lincoln Mutasa, Sunday and Misheck Chidzambwa, Edward Katsvere and company were playing and, at least, three juniors would be getting introduced into the first team every year.
“You could see how the senior players would be grooming the juniors and guiding them into the senior games. I saw the likes of Memory Mucherahowa, Simon Chuma, Vitalis Takawira, Chamunoda Musanhu, and many more, going through this process and they became great players.”
He has seen the good, the bad and ugly at the Glamour Boys.
“My fondest memories are surviving relegation in 2005 when we all came together and worked as one,’’ he said.
“It was our last game of the season against Masvingo and they had to beat Dynamos to win the league and Dynamos had to win to survive relegation, which we did under head coach Moses Chunga and his assistant Callisto Pasuwa.
“I remember that the only way we survived relegation in 2005 was by putting our differences aside, coming together and working as one, with one common goal and purpose.
“I had earlier resigned at the beginning of 2005 because Cephas Chimedza was sold to CAPS United when I knew that he was a great player, but we were called back to come and help the team survive relegation.’’
Fourie hailed Dynamos for arranging a coaching attachment for coach Ndiraya in Belgium.
Ndiraya will be working with Pro-League sides KV Mechelen, Genk and Anderlecht in the next two weeks.
“The coaching attachments are very good as it has always been a tradition, as far as I can remember, even Sunday Chidzambwa was sent to Brazil (in the 1990s).
“Football has developed in this modern day that a lot of techniques are being used to develop players and this has included sports science and nutrition.
“Ndiraya will learn a great lot on these attachments as well as learning new training methods and management of players.”
Online Reporter