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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
MANICA Diamonds coach, Jairos Tapera, is serious about his intentions to make a lasting impact in the 2023 Castle Lager Premiership season, if his highly-rated new acquisitions are anything to go by, Post Sport has established.
Only last week, Post Sport revealed that Tapera had agreed in principle to have bustling veteran striker and 2022 soccer star of the year finalist, Donald Ngoma, fellow former Triangle trio of Gerald Bhero, Kelvin Gwau and central defender, Tawanda Chisi as part of the Gem Goys; 2023 premiership campaign.
The former Zimbabwe national Under-20 coach also brought in gifted player, Panashe Mutasa from relegated Tenax. As if that was enough, Tapera is understood to have roped in striker, Perfect Chikwende from Bulawayo Chiefs, Farai Banda from Black Rhinos, Trevor Mavhunga and gifted 23-year-old Kudzai Dhemere from fading Harare giants, Dynamos.
Chikwende was one of Bulawayo Chiefs’ key players during the just-ended season, while Banda was one of the major reasons why Black Rhinos proved to be a difficult team to beat in the eventful 2021-2022 Castle Lager Premiership season.
Even though he neither denied nor confirmed the acquisition of Dhemere, Banda, Mavhunga and Chikwende, Tapera insisted that he is assembling a formidable outfit.
“I really cannot give names of the players we are targeting because of contractual obligations that the players have with their current clubs, but I can assure you that we will be having a competitive outfit next season,” said the lanky and soft spoken former Black Rhinos team manager.
The Manica Diamonds gaffer confirmed that they will be reassembling for the 2023 Castle Lager Premiership preseason preparations early next month.
“We will be reassembling for the 2023 Castle Lager Premiership preseason preparations around January 4 and 5. It has to be early next month, simply because we have not much time before the competitive matches begin.
“We were told that the season will be starting at the end of February, therefore this means we need to have adequate time for gelling and preparing the team before the season starts,” he said.
The Gem Boys ended their debut Premiership season on an impressive fifth position, but went on to settle for 10th position in their second year in the country’s top-flight league.
The club has not missed an opportunity to prepare for the season adequately and the secluded environs of Lake Mtirikwi in Masvingo has been their destination for their preseason camps in the two years they have been in the top-flight league.
Tapera is eyeing the oppressively hot environment of Kariba or the scenic Nyanga for the 2023 preseason camp for Manica Diamonds.
“We are hoping to be in Kariba this time around for our preseason camp or we might take our preseason preparations to Nyanga. We are yet to finalise on that. Either way, we hope to give the new and old players enough time to gel and form formidable combinations before the season starts,” he said.
Be that as it may, it remains to be seen whether Manica Diamonds will deliver what is largely expected by football fans in Manicaland, which is nothing less than either a major silverware from a premier cup competition or the coveted league title.
From the just-ended 2022-2023 Castle Lager Premiership season, much was expected from the Mutare-based club, not only because of the pace they set early in the season, but also given the relatively better working conditions for the players and technical department, let alone the recruiting of experienced players who were at their disposal most of whom trace their roots to the eastern border city.
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