Rahman Gumbo quits

His wife Virgie who doubles up as his manager refused to comment on the issue last night.

“Better speak to him, I am not in the picture,” she said.

Gumbo could not be reached for comment as he was said to be in rural Insiza District where there could be mobile phone network challenges.

Under fire for the lacklustre performance against Angola in which the Zimbabwe senior national soccer team went into the second leg of a final qualifier with a seemingly healthy 3-1 lead, Gumbo presided over a 2-0 loss in Luanda. That was enough to send the Angolans to the finals of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations finals.

A Zimbabwe win seemed a big catch for South Africa who stood to benefit from the large number of fans who would have thronged their stadia by air, road and railway if Zimbabwe had qualified.

The axe has been looming over Gumbo’s neck after his tactics and team selection left him clutching thin air in a match his curriculum vitae could have had a number of pages added on. His team conceded two early goals after fielding a line-up dominated by attack minded players who turned out to be monumental flops despite their high rankings.

Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze sounded evasive when asked if the national association had received communication from the former national team coach.

“If ever there has been such communication, the Zifa board which meets tomorrow at 2.30pm, will discuss the issue of Gumbo and any other pertinent business regarding the national team.

“I cannot say we have or we have not received any correspondence from Gumbo, maybe he wrote to the president of the association directly. If there is communication of that sort then it will come up for discussion,” said Mashingaidze.

According to Zifa sources in Harare, Gumbo was due to be fired this afternoon.

The decision is said to have come from the Zifa high performance technical team, a grouping of coaches who have found it difficult to land coaching jobs in recent years. Some of the coaches’  past is littered with failures.

It is believed Gumbo’s strategy to attack in Angola backfired on him. Another issue he was not bold enough to take a stand and shut out players made available at the 11th hour by Zifa who had been cleared by the Independent Ethics Committee ahead of the Angola second leg tie. He used players whose performance he had not been following all along at their clubs.

With the likes of Knowledge Musona, Kingstone Nkhata and Cuthbert Malajila available, he would have been crucified by the nation if he had not used them.

Some of the players put up pathetic performances despite their bubbling youth that many were left convinced there was no future in the team as veterans Noel Kaseke and Esrom Nyandoro intercepted several dangerous raids.

Gumbo’s decision to quit, it is believed, could have saved the national association thousands of dollars in his severance package.

Zifa have in the recent past lost in court cases involving Sunday Chidzambwa, Valinhos, Lazarus Mhurushomana and Norman Mapeza.

Efforts to get a comment from Dube last night were unsuccessful and Gumbo did not turn up for a scheduled Press conference in the city due to an alleged illness in the family. According to sources he had planned to announce his decision at the Press conference.