adminEVERY time a coach is appointed to take charge of a Premier Soccer League team in the country, it is now common to get stories that he is taking along his “trusted lieutenant to be his assistant”. In other countries, they refer to such trusted lieutenants as backroom staff which moves with the manager wherever he goes. Let us take FC Platinum as a case study. When the late Benjamin Moyo was appointed head coach when the team was promoted into the Premiership, he brought along Philani Mabhena as his assistant, with the man who had guided the team to the Premiership, Jairos Tapera being reassigned to the junior development structures.
After the untimely death of Moyo, Rahman Gumbo came in as head coach and he did not come alone. He brought with him his trusted lieutenant whom he had worked with in Botswana, Tendai Chikuni, who became his assistant at the club and Mabhena eventually found his way to the junior structures until his contract lapsed with the club.
As fate would have it, Gumbo was to unceremoniously leave the club, and his assistant remained acting head coach before the club decided to hire Zambian expatriate, Tenant Chilumba early this season. And guess what, he did not come alone. He also brought with him his trusted lieutenant, Anderson Phiri to become his new assistant with Chikuni pushed down the ladder to become second assistant.
The drama was continue when Chilumba decided to pack his bags for home after getting a job there, and in came Lloyd Mutasa, and like his predecessors, he did not come alone. He brought with him his trusted assistant who was with him at Dynamos, Masimba Dinyero, and as fate would have it, after Phiri chose to follow Chilumba in Zambia, Chikuni was also pushed down the ladder to the development structures with Dinyero taking his place.
Such is the trend in football nowadays and although it might be a new phenomenon in local football, football administrators are beginning to accept that it is how business is done. And when its all rosy for the coaching department, the club administrators get frustrated by that they lose complete control of the team. Nonetheless, it becomes interesting when the results fail to come and the head coach is shown the door, leaving his so called trusted lieutenant in charge. That is when we start getting stories in hushed tones of alleged back biting among the technical staff, with the “trusted lieutenant” now wining and dining with club administrators who would have crossed swords with the head coach, simply for the purposes of survival.
I had an interesting chat with a former Premier League coach who told me that he was stunned to hear from the executive when they were telling him to pack and go that his assistants said he was difficult to work with.
“When you get a job as head coach you always want to have someone you can trust by your side and I also did the same when I got a similar position. But the problem we have in the country is lack of professionalism as you will soon discover that your assistant is now going behind your back to discuss some technical and team selection issues with the executive. I was told by a person I had personally recommended to be hired that I am difficult to work with and I was shocked,” he said.
In Europe, some well known managers like Jose Mourinho are known to move along with their backroom staff wherever they go, from fitness trainer, goal keepers’ trainer to physiotherapist and they are the ones who negotiate their contracts. When they get fired, the backroom staff also goes in the name of loyalty, something we have never seen at home.
When he joined Chelsea in 2004, Mourinho recruited his backroom staff from his former club Porto, consisting of assistant manager Baltemar Brito, fitness coach Rui Faria, chief scout André Villas-Boas (now Spurs manager in England), and goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro. He however, retained the services of Steve Clarke, a long-serving former player at Chelsea, who had also performed an assistant managerial-type role under previous managers at the club.
After a recent lean spell by English champions Manchester United, the debate centred on the backroom staff. The media in England raised queries on whether it was a good move by new coach David Moyes to bring his trusted lieutenants from his former club, Everton, and do away with the entire backroom staff that had helped Alex Ferguson bring the much talked about success to the club over the years.
“Why were title-winning players looking so listless and demotivated? Why was the back line suddenly so vulnerable to direct runs? Where was the trademark late bombardment for an equaliser?”
There were even questions asked of the backroom team he (Moyes) had assembled upon arrival at Old Trafford, dispensing completely with Sir Alex Ferguson’s trusted lieutenants, screamed the Daily Mail recently.
Former goalkeeping coach Eric Steele suggested Moyes had made a mistake in bringing in a completely new staff. In an interview with United We Stand fanzine, Steele said: “He listened to the manager’s [Ferguson] advice but he wanted to be his own man. I didn’t want to leave. Why would I? I knew that David was coming in and wondered who he’d bring. You had the United perspective – the manager saying: “Keep what we’ve got, keep the continuity, work with them and they’ll guide you through”.
“You’re taking on a massive machine here. You’ve gone from Marks and Spencers to Harrods.” However, Ferguson’s advice went unheeded as Moyes dispensed with assistant Mike Phelan, first team coach Rene Meulensteen and goalkeeping coach Steele. In came assistant Steve Round, first team coach Jimmy Lumsden and goalkeeping coach Chris Woods, while former United player Phil Neville came in as a coach.
Apart from friendship, there are other qualities that coaches look at when recruiting assistants and the most important one is loyalty, loyalty and loyalty. Perhaps it applies to all aspects of work environments.
Ferguson recently told the media the qualities he looked for most in members of his backroom staff: “Three things are very important when you are working with them: work ethic, loyalty, philosophy. You all have to be singing the same tune, no matter how bad the tune is. It’s important that your people agree with you and the way that we at United wanted to play; that was very important. My attitude to a game of football; never give in. At half-time in a game of football, if you’re behind, never give in.”
*And here are some of the interesting Facebook posts after the mid-week PSL matches. Leslie Phiri: “ Supporting Dynamos hoping they will defend the league title is like watching the Titanic hoping this time the ship won’t sink again. Well, I’ve got news for you, its going down baby!”
Robson Sharuko, posted by DeMbare.coms: “ DeMbare are down right now but to suggest they are out, with six games left, is outrageous. They have lost their touch at the wrong time, and have been a mockery to their championship status of late, but to say they are finished in this race is suicidal and while they no longer hold the aces, which is good for the league to have different teams winning the title, l won’t be tempted to believe we have just seen the end of the defence of their crown.”
Faith Silandulo Dube; “ I think it’s game on and very open contest. 18 points can be a long way in football. If we (Highlanders) slip up one game and Dynamos win, everything changes.”
To the coaches and their trusted lieutenants, good luck as the race intensifies in the home stretch.
For comments and contributions email [email protected]. You can follow with writer on Twitter and Facebook.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter