The Sunday Mail
IT looks like a cyclone is headed towards Caps United this off season.
A number of key players like Tendai Samanja, Tafadzwa Dube and skipper Tapuwa Khumbuyani have their contracts expiring in a fortnight and chances of Makepekepe returning their services are slim.
Others like Hardlife Zvirekwi, Ronald Pfumbidzai and Moses Muchenje are still contracted to the club but are said to have had enough of the Green Machine and its empty coffers.
Caps United’s poor financial position makes it impossible for them to compete on the transfer market, all they can do is hunt for bargains.
Sadly, the impeding cyclone is giving ammunition to a section of Makepekepe fans which believes that Twine Phiri is the reason why the Green Machine has not been firing to full potential.
Phiri has had a rough year, both on the domestic and football fronts, and deserves much more credit than what he is getting, or not getting.
One just needs to pass through a place where a group of the vegetable waving fans are gathered to hear the nasty vitriol that is being aimed at him.
They argue that Phiri has destroyed Caps United.
They argue that with better administration their club would have won the league title this year instead of finishing third.
They make valid points.
They also make silly ones too, a lot of them.
However, and more importantly, they seem to miss one very important fact.
Twine Phiri, who is no saint but is no swine either, owns Caps United.
It’s his.
They are just fans of Phiri’s club.
They won’t like hearing, or reading this, but the Green Machine faithful are just supporters of a project that Phiri has invested a lot in.
No matter how much they may claim to love the team, Makepekepe remains Twine’s property.
And he can do whatever he wants with it.
For all his flaws, Twine is not a lousy football administrator.
In my book he is one of the best we have in the game today.
He is way better that Dr Cuthbert Dube.
Just peep at what he has done at the Premier Soccer League before dismissing him as a complete failure.
However, unlike at the PSL Phiri is not surrounded by men and women who can tell him that “look achimwene you are messing it up.”
Phiri just needs strong support structures at Caps United and the team’s passionate fans are better advised to engage, rather than enrage, the team owner.
Despite running on almost empty during the 2014 season Caps United managed their highest ever league position in years.
Now that’s something.
The Makepekepe family needs to find a way of building on the impressive season they had this year and the first port is to find a good coach to replace Taurai Mangwiro.
The Green Machine is big and strong enough to survive any player exodus.
That’s no worry.
Will there be sunshine at City?
After cheating death by a whisker Harare City unveiled a seemingly strong technical team last week.
Taurai Mangwiro made the switch from Caps United to the Sunshine Boys, pulling the finger on Dynamos in the process.
But just how do they intend to go about their business at Town House?
There appear to be too many cooks at Harare City.
Mangwiro brought his men, Masimba Dinyero was relegated to chief scout while David George, assisted by Elvis “Chuchu” Chiweshe, will head the juniors programme.
It’s an environment conducive for nasty back stabbing.
Away from the politics, Mangwiro made the right decision to settle for Harare City ahead of the ever volatile Dynamos.
For that he is the 18-area.coms football personality of the week.
A coach who is said to be in the habit of breaking down before his players and always threatens to quit when the going gets tough is not suited for the pressure cooker coaching post at Dynamos.
Tau is a good coach, a good man.
He just lacks steel!
Va Shagare exits the scene.
VaShagare is the founder of DeMbare DotComs and can be contacted on that Facebook page as well as the email [email protected].
