Andrew
Langton Nyakwenda
Sports Reporter
WITH a combined age of 73 years, veteran strikers Tawanda “Finger” Nyamandwe and Newman Sianchali were the major highlights of how the local Premiership transfer market continues to be dominated by old horses.
Nyamandwe, who turns 39 in June and was part of Zimbabwe’s inaugural African Nations Championships (CHAN) squad in 2009, joined Black Rhinos from Manica Diamonds early February.
While Sianchali (35), who has seen duty with various Premier Soccer League clubs including the Big Three — Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United – moved to ZPC Kariba from DeMbare.
Dynamos shipped out a 35-year-old Sianchali and brought in another old horse, Evans Katema, who turns 34 in May.
CAPS United recruited the duo of Dennis Dauda and Rodwell Chinyengetere, both 33 and former Soccer Stars of the Year.
Kelvin Madzongwe and Rahman Kutsanzira, both 32, also changed bases, with the former re-joining Bulawayo Chiefs, while the latter returned to Highlanders.
They both left FC Platinum, who are on a transformation that has seen coach Norman Mapeza elevating junior players into the senior team.
Fellow platinum miners, Ngezi Platinum Stars, have also adopted a new policy.
They will not renew contracts of players aged 30 and above.
This fresh policy forced Devon Chafa (31) to leave for CAPS United, whose coach Lloyd Chitembwe has assembled a team of veterans that he is strongly tipping to compete for honours.
While the two platinum sides FC Platinum and Ngezi are embarking on a different trajectory, most of the Premiership sides still believe in old horses.
Most of the top-flight coaches do not seem to trust younger players that are being churned out by academies and even their developmental sides.
Why is this so?
ZPC Kariba coach Godfrey Tamirepi explained why old players dominate the transfer market.
“Some coaches are usually after immediate success and lack patience to tap and develop players. Others simply do not have the capacity to develop young players,” said Tamirepi.
“Also, some of the clubs demand instant results, so a coach would opt for experienced or ageing players so as to get the desired results.”
He also defended his decision to sign Sianchali, who is almost twice the age of Dynamos striker Bill Antonio.
“As much as we need to fuse in youngsters, there is also need for balance between experience and youth.
“In my case, with regards Newman Sianchali, it was a stop-gap measure and I wanted my young forwards to learn some tricks from him and with his experience he will help my team on the field of play without relying mostly on the coach.”
Tamirepi thinks there is serious lack of supply of quality players from junior ranks.
“We cannot be talking about junior players when they just surface at national level only when there is a competition.
“We don’t have league competitions for all junior age groups despite having junior structures on paper.
“We have academies in place, but do they meet the requirements to produce a quality player. Do we have a league in place for the academies since a game is the best teacher?
“The fact is we do not have quality players coming from the junior ranks, while the talent at our disposal lacks nurturing,” he said.
ZPC Kariba recruited six players and promoted two from their juniors.
Future Sibanda (FC Platinum), Bright Chayambuka (Yadah FC), Munyaradzi Kunyarimwe and Munyaradzi Diro-Nyenye (CAPS United), Parkington Mazhawu (Filabusi) and Tinotenda Chiunye (Dynamos) are the new arrivals at Nyamhunga.
Nigel Chipunza and Epton Hondo were promoted from ZPC Kariba’s developmental side. Triangle coach and a junior football development guru Jairos Tapera feels there are many factors driving the current scenario.
While he is a firm believer in junior talent, he agrees with Tamirepi that players coming out of academies or junior teams “are half-baked”.
“There are multiple problems associated with this scenario.
“The biggest of them all is that coaches want to protect their employment and they wrongly think with old aged players they can get some mileage.
“On the other hand, trusting young blood, especially those players that you have never worked with before, might be risky.” Tapera believes youthful players should be given a chance and has already started infusing new faces at Triangle.
He retained only three ageing players – Russel Madamombe (30), Arnold Chiveya (33) and Jameson Mukombwe (30) – from the squad he inherited from Taurai Mangwiro, who is back at Harare City.
He also kept former FC Platinum striker Donald Ngoma, who turns 33 in September.
“Yes, there is need to balance experience and youth, but as coaches, we should strive to give youngsters a chance because they are the future. That’s why I have taken on board a number of unheralded youngsters.
“However, we also have a problem because in most instances the young players coming from academies are half-baked.
“We have academies who just rush to sell players with no concentration on development whatsoever.
“Let the players develop first, and they should be developed by qualified football tutors.”
But most academy coaches reckon they are producing starlets year in, year out but PSL coaches are simply ignoring them.
One of them is Friendly Academy coach Partridge Muskwe.
“The major problem we have with these old horses is that they keep rotating local clubs and in the process they deny young talent an opportunity to break into the top-flight.
“In the same vein, we have coaches of the so-called PSL teams who know nothing about talent identification,” said Muskwe.
“We play so many tournaments at junior level; in fact, next week we should be starting the Harare Province Under-21 League, but you will not see any PSL coach at such games, even if they are free from their club commitments.”
He said PSL coaches should concentrate on young talent.
“The talent is there at Under-19 or Under-18 level … We have several good players at our academy; some of whom are on trials in South Africa.
“We are forced to move players directly from the academy to South Africa because there is no space here in Zimbabwe.
“Yet you have a player who is 39-years-old and is still rotating local clubs. What is that?”
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