Online Reporter
Robson Sharuko
Metros Editor
AMID the celebrations which greeted Dynamos’ historic hat-trick of victories in the Chibuku Super Cup final on Saturday, it was difficult to ignore a key question – WHAT NEXT FOR DEMBARE?
Or, to phrase it in another way – WHAT NEXT FOR BERNARD MARRIOT?
The man who claims he owns the country’s biggest and most successful football club was in the stands at Gibbo to watch his club write their latest success story in this tournament.
He now feels comfortable enough to make such trips because the tension, which used to grip the Glamour Boys and keep him away from the stadiums, has subsided.
The recruitment of Kelvin Kaindu as coach was a masterstroke.
It was a welcome diversion from the madness which saw Marriot and his executive invest in such lightweight coaches like MaBlanyo and Saul Chaminuka.
His arrival brought the stability which was non-existent when MaBlanyo and Chaminuka were taking turns to drag the Glamour Boys into their grave.
He completed his task, in both the league and Cup, unbeaten and some analysts are even saying that if Kaindu had started the season as DeMbare coach, the Glamour Boys would probably have been champions.
It’s a tough one to call but who can argue with a coach who has just completed the second half of the season unbeaten?
However, the big questions still have to be faced because, after all, Dynamos have won this trophy before, in each of the last two years to be precise, and nothing has changed.
The huge turnover of players, and coaches, who helped DeMbare win this tournament, is a case in point.
Will we not see a similar story where the likes of Martin Mapisa, Emmanuel Paga, Fredrick Botchway, Tanaka Shandirwa, Sadney Urikhob, Elton Chikona, to name but a few, helped Dynamos win the Chibuku Super Cup but ended up playing elsewhere the following season?
How many of the players in this DeMbare side will be there come next month, when their contracts expire at the end of this month, and then we will once again see the nonsense disguised as a rebuilding exercise?
Will we not see a similar story to the one we saw when Genesis Mangombe helped Dynamos win the Chibuku Super Cup in 2023 but found himself out of the club the following season?
Will we not see the same story where Marriot uses success in this tournament to consolidate his power, fool himself that the team is doing very well under his ownership and nothing needs to be fixed at the club?
Will we not see the same story where success in this tournament has been used to mend the cracks at the club and give an impression that everything is fine when the reality is that this is a team which requires a different way of doing business?
Isn’t it important to remind Marriot that even Harare City won this tournament TWICE in the past decade, including beating DeMbare 2-1 in the final in 2015, but they have become regulars in Division One?
And that Bulawayo Chiefs and Triangle also won this tournament in the past decade.
