Online Reporter
Robson Sharuko
H-Metro Editor
IT’S the million dollar question which is dominating domestic football right now – WILL DYNAMOS BE RELEGATED FROM THE PSL?
There is a defiant army of this club’s fans who will tell you that this will never happen and their Glamour Boys will be safe at the end of the season.
On the other end, there is also an army of this club’s fans who will tell you that this is the beginning of the end for their beloved Glamour Boys.
Their coach, Saul Chaminuka, is also defiant that DeMbare will not go down.
“We have 14 games left, that’s 42 points to fight for,” he said after a routine 0-1 defeat at the hands of TelOne at Ascot on Saturday.
“We will not go down. Yes, we’re in a rough patch, but there are 10 teams around us. Two consecutive wins could change everything.”
The problem is that this is exactly what Chaminuka was saying, two years ago, when he replaced Stix Mtizwa as Black Rhinos head coach.
“The team will survive. I have always said we will survive, now the boys are confident they know that they can win.”
Well, the reality came at the end of the season when Rhinos, two-time champions in this league, were relegated.
Chaminuka’s first win at Rhinos did not come until his seventh game and, in nine games at DeMbare, he has won once, his men are yet to score more than one goal in a match and they have failed to score in four games.
But, this isn’t about his obvious shortcomings as a coach.
This is about football’s version of Titanic, which has just slammed into an iceberg and is now on autopilot on its way to the bottom of the ocean.
This is about an institution that lost its soul the moment it was converted from a community team, which was owned by its people, into a private property which now belongs to the Marriot family.
One of the best hotel chains in the world is also owned by a family called Marriot.
But, they really take care of their properties which is completely the opposite of what has been happening at Dynamos in the past 11 years since Marriot became the emperor at the club.
Now, with just 14 games to go before the end of the season, we all have to deal with the grim possibility that Dynamos could sink into Division One at the end of this season.
The statistics are damning:
DeMbare have won just TWO of their 19 games with both wins coming at Rufaro which means they are winless on the road all season.
They failed to beat bottom club Kwekwe United, who have lost 13 of their opening 20 games, at Rufaro.
They failed to score a goal against Kwekwe United, who have conceded 40 goals in their opening 20 games at an average of two goals per game, at Rufaro as the match ended goalless.
Dynamos are yet to score more than one goal in each of the 19 games they have played so far this season, which translates to 1710 minutes of league action.
The Glamour Boys have failed to score in 13 of their opening 19 games and, with just SIX goals to their credit, Dynamos find themselves having scored fewer goals than Kwekwe United, who have scored eight goals.
With just two wins in 19 matches, Dynamos are only better than Kwekwe United on that front with the PSL newboys having won just once all season.
Triangle, who are also in relegation trouble, have scored 21 goals, more than THREE times what these misfiring Glamour Boys have scored all season.
Yadah, who are also in relegation trouble, have scored 12 goals, which is exactly TWICE the number of goals which Dynamos have scored this season.
Simba Bhora, who are the league’s leading scorers, have scored 26 goals and that’s more than FOUR times the number of goals which Dynamos have scored this season.
Little Greenfuel have scored 14 goals this season and that is more than TWICE what Dynamos have scored this campaign.
While the Glamour Boys are second from the bottom of the table, the teams occupying the first four slots on the table – Simba Bhora, MWOS, TelOne and Scottland – are all under the guidance of coaches who used to work at DeMbare – Joel Luphahla, Lloyd Mutasa, Herbert Maruwa and Tonderai Ndiraya.
One of those coaches, Ndiraya, has already won the league championship, something which Dynamos have failed to do in the last 11 years and certainly will not do this season.
Some of their defiant fans will say that exactly 20 years ago, their team was in a similar predicament but fought back to survive and, two years later, they had transformed themselves into champions again.
Back in 2005, Dynamos found themselves facing the possibility of being relegated going into the final weekend of the championship marathon.
Somehow, they beat Masvingo United, who needed a win to be champions, 2-1 at Mucheke to ensure their survival.
But, the reality though is that even if they had lost that game they would still have survived given that Njube Sundowns’ 2-5 thrashing at the hands of Motor Action, on that final day of action, ensured DeMbare were safe irrespective of the result from Mucheke.
However, what has to be put into context is that the DeMbare Class of 2005, for all their struggles, had decent players like Elliot Matsika and Clive Mwale, who were on target in that final game of the season.
What they didn’t have was a good environment for them to work and get good results and it explains why the majority of them left, at the end of the season, to join Shooting Stars.
The 2025 Class of DeMbare is made up of many lightweights who seem to have been overwhelmed by the sheer size of the task before them.
It doesn’t help that they are working in an environment where player welfare is not a priority and the focus appears to be ensuring that the sangomas are well taken care of even though the results are not coming.
Such is the belief in the dark arts that some of those legends, who are supposed to be taking on Marriot in the battle for the ownership of the club, have said they fear plunging into the battle could cost them their lives.
That’s Dynamos for you.
And, as the clock ticks towards DoomsDay, every weekend is delivering a cruel blow.
The next game is against Simba Bhora in Shamva and even if they win it, which will be a huge upset, Dynamos will still be stuck in second-from-the-bottom of the table for another week.
Mathew Masinge