It’s in the ‘M’ for Mutasa

send the early signals that they would the dominant football force in the country.
Murape had been ushered into the hot seat, as player coach, after a player revolt in 1976 toppled the leadership headed by the late Morrison Sifelani and pushed players into positions of authority both on the administrative and technical fronts.
That vintage Class of Glamour Boys, widely regarded as the finest team to be assembled at Dynamos, won the league championship in 1976 and five of the six knockout tournaments on offer.
They scored 107 goals in all tournaments, thrashing Zimbabwe Saints 8-1 in the Castle Cup final and Chibuku 8-0 in the final of the Nyore Nyore Shield.
Since that landmark year, which marked the beginning of Dynamos’ dominance of the domestic football scene, after they had captured just three league titles in 13 years before that, coaches with a surname that starts with an ‘M’ have seemingly enjoyed the luck of winning the championship with the club.
Murape led the way and handed the button to Sunday Marimo, later known as Chidzambwa, who won seven league titles in the ‘80s and ‘90s during a golden spell for the Glamour Boys where they also reached the final of the Champions League in ’98.
After Mhofu quit, Dynamos tried a number of coaches, without any luck in the championship race, and for 10 barren years, the club battled in vain to win the league title.
But the arrival of David Mandigora, another of the coaches who surname starts with an ‘M’, changed all that and Dynamos powered to league championship glory in 2007 and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League the following year.
Mandigora was replaced by Elvis Chiweshe but, while Chuchu tried his best, he was only good enough for second place in 2009 and 2010, losing to Gunners and Motor Action.
The departure of Chuchu brought in Lloyd Mutasa, another of the coaches with a surname that begins with an ‘M’, and, while he is still seven points adrift of leaders FC Platinum, there is optimism in the Dynamos camp that they can overhaul the difference in the final 13 matches.
Mutasa has already completed a rare Derby Double over bitter rivals CAPS United, with the 2-1 win over the Green Machine on Sunday marking the first time, this season, the Glamour Boys had come from behind and won a match.
Until Sunday’s heroics, Dynamos had lost all three matches where they had fallen behind, going down 0-1 to Kiglon, 0-2 to Motor Action, 0-1 to Saints and 1-2 to Blue Ribbon.
Sunday’s win marked only the second time, in the era of the modern Premiership, that Dynamos had completed a league double over CAPS United, with the last one coming under a coach, whose surname started with an ‘M’, in 1994.
DeMbare were under Mhofu, who was known as Sunday Marimo, then.
Chidzambwa holds the proud record not losing a Premiership match to CAPS United, when he was in charge at Dynamos, since the new format came into being in 1993.
Mutasa had a rocky start, with his players struggling to recover from the nightmare they suffered in Tunisia where they lost 0-3 in controversial circumstances, but he appears to have steadied his ship and their comeback win on Sunday, against an impressive CAPS United, showed their true colours.
Maybe fate has it, if not in his technical skills then maybe in the magical letter that starts his surname, for Mutasa to lead his Glamour Boys to the Promised Land.
Maybe it’s a combination of both his technical skills and fate working on his side.
Only time will tell.