adminESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for finding time for interaction. When Dynamos appointed Portuguese coach, Paulo Jorge Silva, hopes ran high at the Glamour Boys that he would bring back glory to the popular Harare giants and restore their status as the aristocrats of Zimbabwean football.
But barely a month into his appointment, the darker side of the gaffer’s personality has often come to the fore and sold him as a rash character who sometimes thinks with his heart instead of his head.
The regular occurrence with which he has clashed not only with the players, but members of his technical staff also has become worrisome to even those who roam the corridors of power at DeMbare.
From a confrontation with Takesure Chinyama to a spat with Gift Muzadzi, Silva latched onto a scathing criticism of young goalkeeper, Tatenda Mukuruva, whom he even threatened to freeze out of the team for what he termed lack of responsibility on the part of the shot-stopper after conceding from a direct corner kick in a ZNA Charities Shield semi-finals loss to ZPC Kariba.
It has become apparent that if Silva is not stepping on someone’s toes, he will be rubbing another the wrong way.
Granted, Silva thinks of himself as a winner and would demand maximum effort and the best from everyone he works with, but things don’t always go one’s way or as they want. Yes, he has his own way of doing things, but when they do not go his way there is always a better way of handling and correcting them.
But certainly not this Paulo Jorge Silva way!
A dressing room clash between Silva and the club’s goalkeepers’ coach, Gift Muzadzi over the selection and choice of the ‘keeper to play in a friendly match against Whawha is as sour as it will taint the two’s working relationship.
Silva might be the boss, yes, but he has to learn to work cordially with his subordinates than demanding that Muzadzi be ejected from the team’s changing room and barring him from sitting on the bench.
To force striker Roderick Mutuma to do sit-ups in front of the fans at a stadium after a botched Messi-Suarez penalty attempt is certainly not the way to right a player’s wrong by a coach.
To admonish young Mukuruva, a teenager still learning the professional ropes of the game, is certainly not the way to handle a youngster.
Gamechanger shudders to think of the venom Silva would have spat if Mutuma had fluffed a glorious chance to win a major title or trophy! Or the repercussions of Mukuruva’s mistake if it was a major cup final or a title-winning game.
Now, Silva should take heart that while these are game situations, Mutuma and Mukuruva’s gaffes only happened in more like friendly matches and in the off-season. This is where the coach and his players will now have to work on correcting and ensure similar costly blunders are not repeated in competitive matches.
After all, games can be won, drawn or lost and in the event of the latter, teams have live to fight another day for victory and not throw the season away in despair.
Yours Truly is surely perplexed by Silva!
For someone who had stints in Europe, he should know better that the coach’s job is to effectively manage his personnel and get the best out of them; not by humiliating or embarrassing them during an iffy spell, but encouraging them to lift their spirits and perform better. An effective coach is only as successful as he inspires his whole team.
The outcome of this move would be mutually beneficial to the both parties; the coach getting credit for the team’s success, while the player’s own career improves.
That Silva has now had brushes with several players – Chinyama, Mutuma, Mukuruva, Ocean Musure, Sydney Linyama and Ashley Reyner – is an indication of his own abrasive personality, for surely he cannot be the only saint and the players all villains.
Players can make or break a coach – we have learned that from Jose Mourinho’s fallout in his second spell at Chelsea as well Andre Villa Boas’ ill-fated stints at Chelsea and later Tottenham Hotspur following tacit player mutiny and Silva surely wouldn’t want to go down that path.
The Dynamos coach has also not confined his controversy to the DeMbare circles only, but did the regrettable after confronting a ZBC news crew and harassed a female cameraperson covering the team’s training session. Again, the darker side of Silva reared its hideous head and was roundly condemned by progressive and true friends of the game.
It is Gamechanger’s fervent hope that Paulo Jorge Silva has learned from what has been of his deplorable stunts and mistakes so far – least expected of any coach – and a silver lining will stream to his darker side so he has an enjoyable stay at DeMbare.
Ronaldo rolls on
The Real Madrid and Portugal superstar keeps scoring for fun and after Los Blancos’ 7-1 demolition of Celta Vigo, it became another game of numbers for the free-scoring ace.
His hat-trick in that routing took his tally to 27 goals in 28 appearances.
He becomes the first player in all history of La Liga to have 25+ strikes in seven consecutive seasons.
Ronaldo has now scored 252 league goals in only 228 appearances.
Those 252 strikes see him overtake Zarra (251) as the La Liga’s second all-time top-scorer behind Lionel Messi.
CR7 now has the most hat-tricks (30 from 228 appearances) in all history of the Spanish league, ahead of Messi (26 in 337) and Zarra (22 in 278).
Ronaldo now also has the most hat-tricks for a single club in all history of Spanish football across all competitions (36), ahead of Messi (35) and Zahha (31).
Overall, CR7 has now scored 40 career hat-trciks
Messi’s three months of hat-tricks
The Barcelona and Argentina magician has been in scintillating form for the Catalan side.
Opening the year with a hat-trick against Granada in January, he started February with another three goals against Valencia and followed it up with another triple strike against Rayo Vallencano.
And here is the interesting part of that trajectory of hat-tricks at the beginning of every month: the eagerly-anticipated El Classico, easily Spain and one of the world’s biggest fixtures, is on at the beginning of April!
It’s Game On, Play On!
For feedback, send your views, comments and contributions through WhatsApp or sms on 0733 576 259 or e-mail: fridayfootballech
Online Reporter