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Allan Foti
THE departure of several key players, early struggles to adopt to a new coach and playing style have overshadowed some of Chicken Inn’s most creative, attacking football in a long time.
When championship-winning Joey Antipas announced to his bosses he would be departing for South Africa six months after winning the Castle Premiership title, the local football world went into a tailspin. There were unending rumours and speculation about who would arrive to lead the Gamecocks.
Tavengwa Hara (secretary) and company soon announced the arrival of former Highlanders, Caps United and Motor Action head coach, Rahman Gumbo. With no time to settle in and forced to use players he had found at the club, “Rush” struggled to stamp his authority on the local league and very soon his time at the club seemed to be heading towards an end.
With skipper Danny “Deco” Phiri, forwards Admore Chirambadare and Mitchell Katswairo leaving virtually within days of his arrival, Gumbo seemed fated to fail at the club. However, he survived and at the beginning of 2017 began building his team and infusing it with his own brand of football.
Twenty four matches into the season, his revolution has gathered steam and the Rush is on for the 2017 title. There is growing evidence that suggests a serious move to the next era in his side. Gumbo’s Chicken Inn confirmed the outstanding impression they have given so far this season.
Gone is the grinding, give-them-nothing machine that was forged under Antipas and brought little success under Gumbo when he first arrived. This season, with the team adapting to Rush’s football philosophy, football neutrals may finally be getting to witness the flesh and blood embodiment of his football genius.
The movement and transition from defence to attack and vice versa led by veteran playmaker, Clement Matawu are done with pace and panache. The ageless Matawu is the great manipulator, the heartbeat of this new Chicken Inn.
A lock picker of note during his playing days, Gumbo has managed to engineer his side’s ability to break down the most resolute of defences this season while keeping his own virtually unbreakable, a feat that has resulted in his side conceding only 9 goals thus far this season.
Having arrived after undistinguished campaigns with Caps United, Motor Action and F C Platinum, Gumbo’s success early in his coaching career with Highlanders that yielded two Premiership titles, he struggled to get his players under his spell. This spurred rumours of a short stay which continued at the beginning of the current season, but fortunately for both the club and Rush, the powers that be at the club decided to risk all and stand by their elegant ’Guvnor.
Many had begun to suggest that his titles at Bosso were nothing more than a fluke and he would never be able to replicate that success with any other local team. The embarrassing wealth of talent at his three previous Zimbabwean clubs as a yard stick to measure his perceived failure to win another title.
But the class of his team’s performances has culminated in Chicken Inn sitting at the top of the log standings with 48 points from 23 matches, scoring 25 goals and conceding just 9 making Gumbo’s Game Cox the meanest defence in the land.
And with ten games left in the season, Rush may finally be ready to reclaim his place in the sun and his hour of glory with a third Castle Lager Premiership title of his coaching career.
For all intents and purposes, Rush seems to have got his groove back, if he had ever lost it in the first place!
— @AllanFoti
Online Reporter