DYNAMOS is burning!

From Eddie Chikamhi in BLANTYRE, Malawi

TEMPERATURES are running high at Dynamos with the future of Portuguese coach Jorge Paulo Silva already in doubt.

The DeMbare executive is increasingly finding it difficult to keep up with Silva’s temperament which has also created serious fissures within the technical department.

Last night, sources within the club’s leadership hinted that a difficult decision could be made in the coming weeks with the latest flashpoint being a brush between the coach and young goalkeeper Tatenda Mukuruva.

The Portuguese gaffer accuses Mukuruva of failing to take responsibility for his blunder in last weekend’s 0-1 defeat to ZPC Kariba in the ZNA Charities quarter finals.

Silva allegedly told Mukuruva, who conceded direct from a Wisdom Mutasa corner kick, that he will find life difficult at the former champions if he does not play to his tune.

And true to his word, Silva did not name the goalkeeper in the team that lost 0-1 to Nyasa Big Bullets in a friendly here yesterday.

However, the way in which the Portuguese gaffer tore into Mukuruva did not go down well with his assistants Lloyd Mutasa and Gift Muzadzi.

The pair voiced their reservations, much to Silva’s chagrin.

Silva, who had another fall out with Muzadzi during a friendly match against Whawha last month, yesterday told this publication that he no longer feels comfortable with his backroom staff.

“This is what surprises me. In the beginning I expected to fight with players because they are the ones I work with every day.

“The players come to tell me ‘look coach this can happen, that can happen and coach this cannot happen’ (at Dynamos).

“And I know it’s not my players (behind all this). I can tell you, it’s the staff! And this is unbelievable, it’s my staff!

“The staff from the club, they are not keeping the rules. They are the first ones who are supposed to abide by the rules but at this moment they are not.

“Of course I need to sit down with the president (Kenny Mubaiwa) and see what happens because it’s not working like this,” he said.

The spirit in the DeMbare camp is cold and Silva said he will not hesitate to walk away if things don’t change.

“The problem is not only the players. Discipline among the players I can control but outside of the players I can’t. And if I tell you one thing, I make my team and then comes somebody important in the team with something different, it’s not good to work like this. With me, no.

“I came here to win and do my job and if I cannot make it there is no problem, I can sit with the president and I can go. There is no problem.

“I did not come here to give problems to anybody. I have a name. I respect my job and I do it from eight o’clock in the morning until eight o’clock in the evening.”

A member of the DeMbare board told The Sunday Mail from Harare that the club’s leadership is slowly losing patience with Silva.

“Remember he was given a warning after clashing with that female journalist. But it seems he doesn’t want to reform. We are monitoring him. Right now he is fighting everyone in that technical team. It’s not healthy. Along the way to Malawi, we are told he was picking fights with everyone, including the coordinator who was accompanying the team (Felix Sapao).

“Since he came he has had brushes with five players – Sydney Linyama, Ocean Mushure, Takesure Chinyama, Ashley Reyners and now Tatenda. The boys are not happy.

“His working relationship with the technical team is now broken, especially with Muzadzi. We can’t have one person being at the centre for all the wrong reasons. We are beginning to doubt his motives and I don’t think this guy will last the distance,” said the official.

Silva said “everyone is now ganging up against me” following the Mukuruva incident.

He said the Warriors number one was losing it as he feels like he is the “Superman in the team just because of his growing profile.”

He said instead of taking responsibility for the ZPC Kariba howler, Mukuruva was being treated with kid gloves by his assistants.

“Nobody likes to lose. I’m sad because I don’t like to lose in my home ground. Nobody wants to talk about it but I can talk. You know what, the son of Mr Mutasa makes a score from the corner kick but every day at training we watch videos and see everything and it gets to happen (on match day).

“I ask for a little bit responsibility from the players and if I ask for that from the player, he needs to accept and work harder. But if you say he plays for the national team and when he makes a mistake he doesn’t need censure, then it’s wrong.

“With me no, he makes a mistake and he needs to improve because now we have three goalkeepers. So he needs to work more before he can get a place again. I think the problem is not with Tatenda but the problem is with the people close to Tatenda because they say to him ‘you don’t need to work because you are a national team player.’

“Of course he is a national team player but he must work because if he doesn’t he will just sit there and not play. I want to know which coach in the world doesn’t need a player in the national team?

“He is a good player, it’s true but the goal he conceded at the stadium, I didn’t expect it to happen because it’s something we had talked about at training and he should have been ready for it.”