The Sunday Mail
CAPS UNITED players, with the aid of hindsight, believe their gaffer had the de ja vu feeling ahead of the long Independence holiday weekend.
The Makepekepe lads had just been paid; there was no engagement over the weekend thanks to the Uhuru Cup featuring Chicken Inn, Highlanders, FC Platinum and out of sorts rivals DeMbare.
There was an air of excitement. But Lloyd Chitembwe looked worried and was going on and on about staying out of trouble.
“As you know Coach Lodza is a disciplinarian and always talks about good behaviour; but on that Friday, just hours before the incident involving Yellow and Uche, he was really hammering into us the need to behave.
“Aita kunge asvikirwa (He appeared as if he was possessed). Now after all that has happened one gets to wonder if the coach knew something bad was about to happen to some of us,” said one Caps United player.
To the uninitiated, Yellow is Method Mwanjali, the Caps United skipper who will not be at the National Sports Stadium today when his side steps out for a derby with Harare City.
As his teammates will be heading back to the dressing room for halftime Mwanjali, will probably be preparing to sleep in his cell at Harare’s Remand Prison where bed time is at the ungodly hour of late afternoon.
He is facing attempted murder charges after allegedly stabbing Tonderai Nhunzvi, not once, but twice, in the stomach at Longcheng Plaza during the early hours of last Sunday.
Uche is Archford Gutu, the marquee signing Makepekepe snatched right under DeMbare’s nose during a busy off-season which saw Farai Jere flexing his financial muscle.
Gutu will also be missing this afternoon. But he won’t be at Reeds, as Remand Prison is known in the streets.
The midfielder is out on bail and is facing charges of malicious damage to property after allegedly smashing the windscreen of Nhunzvi’s car.
The news on Mwanjali and Gutu broke as the sun was rising last Sunday, but predictably there was no sunshine at the Green Machine.
On social media, the Makepekepe faithful were immediately reminded, not that they had forgotten, of criminal cases involving the late Cheche Billiat and former skipper David Maketo Sengu.
That vegetable waving army badly needs some respite, something to cheer their spirits, after a topsy turvy week that saw their club trending for all the wrong reasons.
They may get it this afternoon but it all boils down to how good a job Chitembwe has done to get his men to focus again.
“The team was rocked a bit, but now it has sunk in and life has to go on,” said Chitembwe.
Life must go on for Caps United with their latest challenge being a Sunshine Boys outfit that appears to be slowly finding the groove after major off-season changes.
Minus Mwanjali and Gutu, the Green Machine has to find a way, a “method”, to get on with business.
Chitembwe was never an epitome of discipline during his playing days but he says off the field he was something close to a saint.
“There is certain behaviour that you do not expect from players, more so if one is a senior player. I will tell you this; in my entire 20-year career I never set foot in a night club,” he said.
As a player Chitembwe was temperamental and fiesty.
However, years on the coaching bench and dealing with players not as tough as he seem to have mellowed him. The Lloyd Chitembwe of five years ago would have given Jorum Muchambo the hair drier treatment after his late howler allowed Ngezi Platinum to steal a point at the Baobab two weeks ago.
However, much to the amazement of many at Makepekepe the gaffer headed to the dressing room, side-stepping the Press, and is yet to say a word about the incident.
Muchambo didn’t get the tongue lashing he expected but Chitembwe’s silence made him uncomfortable enough to know that a repeat would see him dropping to the bench.
Chitembwe realises more than ever that the social side of his players also needs to be attended to.
In the past he was all about tactics.
Discipline is his favourite subject.
“We always talk about issues of discipline both on and off the field but it is up to the players to take it. Some listen, some do not.
“We talked about off the field discipline last week Friday. I spoke about the need for players to behave during the long Independence holiday.
“I told the guys ‘we are going to have a long holiday, so please behave’ and I was shocked when I heard about the night club incident,” said Chitembwe.
