adminESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for making time for interaction. So, Timothy Masachi, better known as Coach Sicho and respected for nurturing junior talent in Mutare’s football circles, has been dithering about joining Premiership new boys, Mutare City Rovers. Both parties have given contrasting versions concerning each’s side of the story – prospective employer, Mutare City Rovers, saying they approached the coach with a job to join their technical team, but he showed a lack of interest and was not forthcoming, while the tactician shot back arguing that it was all only tentative, a verbal offer, and feels they did not do enough to show their offer was well-meaning.
Taking each side for their word, it leaves Coach Sicho with some serious soul-searching to do.
First, and importantly, he acknowledges that Gusha Bhora presented their offer, but he felt that there were some creases that needed ironing out, like the capacity in which he would be joining the side and that the “offer” was only verbal. Granted, Coach Sicho was only acting in protecting his best interests here! But come on coach, as you would later rope in your manager, James Muhala, these are the very tasks that he, as your handler, should have performed by seeking clarification on any grey areas from the Premiership debutants as they were the ones who had made the first step. Muhala ought to have got back to Coach Sicho’s prospective employers and inquire about the offer.
That approach alone, even as verbal as it was, should have been enough to trigger talks between the two parties and it would not be unfair to suggest that Coach Sicho stalled progress.
Was this a cowardly act painting him as being afraid or feeling unequal to the task of taking up a job and getting back into the Premiership?
Gamechanger thinks not, because Coach Sicho has been there and done it with Buffaloes. Added to that, Gamechanger believes that Coach Sicho still has something to offer at that level of the game.
It is Gamechanger’s fervent hope that this apparently developing pattern of “ignoring” job offers won’t turn into a worrisome habit by the gaffer since he reportedly shut both his eyes and ears to a similar call from Rusape-based Dongo Sawmills during their stint in the Premiership last season.
Second, and again important, the popular junior football mentor has declared both his willingness and preparedness for a job as an assistant to Bokande, but his words have not translated into corresponding action.
His actions suggest otherwise.
Look, coach, time and tide wait for no man, and especially the latter; it is of essence. Mutare City Rovers were reshuffling and then appointed an executive committee to steer the club and they would not wait forever for your services. They needed to put proper structures in place as they prepare to embark on that journey of their first ever Premiership voyage.
If you wanted the job then you should have gone for it, Coach Sicho, and then fight on it. You see, coach, that was a half chance and you know you should have done better by fully utilising it; as Gamechanger knows as well as you do that this is the daily bread and simple gospel you preach to players during training sessions. A half chance had fallen your way there, Coach Sicho, and you should have turned it into a goal of coaching in the Premiership that you are itching for.
Just as one has to build a door when opportunity does not knock, so can Coach Sicho “return the favour” of the offer to Gusha Bhora by approaching them also to spell out what he can offer.
To moan and mourn that Mutare-made coaches are being overlooked by local top-flight teams is barking a fruitless tree and will not help their cause in any fruitful way if they appear hesitant when approached, as we learned from Coach Sicho’s case.
This is collectively our game, our team, our city, our pride and we all have to contribute in whatever way we can.
It’s a Ronaldo, Messi world
This simply a Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo world and we are living in it.
If the Real Madrid forward is not reaching another milestone, then the Barcelona attacker will be setting a new record.
CR7 continued to set the pace in the UEFA Champions League, with his opener in Real’s 2-0 win over Roma taking his tally to a record-extending 89 goals in the UCL.
Here are a few interesting facts about how the Portuguese superstar has fared in Europe’s elite club competition:
§ He is the first player in UCL history to score 40 goals in the knockout stage
§ Ronaldo is the only player to have scored 44 away goals in the competition, at least nine more than any other player (Lionel Messi, 35)
§ Ronaldo has now scored in 60 different UCL matches, four more thanm any other player (Raul, 56)
§ CR7 has scored 12 goals in this season’s edition, more than Atletico Madrid (11), Roma (11) and Juventus (6)
§ CR7 has had 50 UCL strikes over the last four seasons, 21 more than any other player
§ He is the all-time UCL top-scorer with 89 goals
LM10, meanwhile, became the first player to reach the 300-goals mark in La Liga history, netting a double as his team put Sporting Gijon to the sword in a 3-1 victory, to become the Spanish top-flight’s top scorer of all time.
Manchester United lost in the “land”
Still smarting from a 2-1 defeat away to relegation-haunted Sunderland at the Black Cats’ Stadium of Light in and English Premier League duel, Manchester United were handed a morale-sapping second defeat on the bounce, by the sane scoreline; this time away to Danish side Midtjylland in the Europa League Round of 32. Now, jokes on the social media did some rounds to the effect that any team whose name had a “land” at the end would strike fear in the Red Devils and roast them.
For Gamechanger, what underlined the depths to which the English giants sank as they crashed to that dreadful Danish defeat is that while Manchester United were being crowned champions of Europe, Midtjylland were only being formed in the same year – 1999!
It’s Game On, Play On!
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