Magaya’s Yadah Stars out to shake football establishment

By Takudzwa Chitsiga

Ambitious Premiership newboys Yadah Stars are today expected to unveil a new coach who will guide them in their maiden season in the top-flight league, with the club’s owner Prophet Walter Magaya saying his club will shake the establishment.

Yadah Stars triumphed in the ZIFA Eastern Region Division One in their first season in that league last year under the guidance of coach Kuda Masaraure.

But the Premiership newboys appear to have decided to look for another coach to take charge of their technical hand.

Yadah Stars are set to use Chibuku as their home ground, with Magaya telling The Herald yesterday he will renovate the stadium into one of the best grounds in the Premiership.

“We are going to renovate the stadium and it will be one of the best stadiums in the Premier League,” Magaya, who joined his players in training yesterday, said.

“We will put a lot of work into it and it will be a modern facility and our proud home ground and we expect the people of Chitungwiza to come and fully support us.

“We are not just in the Premiership to make up the numbers, we are there to make a big impression and when I told you two years ago that I wanted to build the biggest and most successful football club in the country you thought I was joking.

“This is just the start and this coming Saturday, at the Yadah Village in Waterfalls, we are inviting all those young players, from the age of eight to about 18, who think they can be developed into very good footballers and we will hold day-long trials.

“We want to have a project that will cater for the very young players, develop them and set an example on how a proper football club should be run in this country and we will leave no stone unturned in that endeavour.”

Magaya said he was also pained by the Warriors’ loss on Monday night, which saw them crashing out of the 2017 Nations Cup finals.

“I have never felt so much pain when it comes to the national team,” he said.

“I was disappointed that we lost not because we were inferior, but because we made a lot of elementary mistakes and we also didn’t pick the right players when we needed them.

“I can’t understand why a player like Dennis Dauda didn’t make that team when all reports show that he was the best central defender in the second half of our Premiership campaign last year.

“And, when you look at how our central defence performed, it’s difficult for anyone to convince me that Dauda would not have done better in that department in Gabon.

“The defence was our main weakness and a lot of analysts had pointed that, even before we left for Gabon, and we should have looked at ways to deal with that but we didn’t.

“In all our three matches, our defence clearly could not deal with the opponents, but we kept playing the same four defenders and that cost us in a very big way.”

Magaya said he also told his church members, way before the Warriors played their first match in Gabon, that he had seen a vision where the left side of the team’s defence will be exposed by the Warriors’ opponents and that Elisha Muroiwa was going to struggle in central defence.

Muroiwa was given the benefit of doubt to keep his place in the team despite spending much of last year battling with injury and his fitness was clearly questionable in Gabon.

“I was surprised that even though I was with the team when we started this journey, paying for their trip to Malawi and their bonuses and other fees, the boys decided not to come and tell me that they were leaving for Gabon,” said Magaya.

“I just felt that as someone who had helped them along the way, especially during the qualifiers, they just needed to come and tell me that they were now going to AFCON and we pray together and ask for better results.” The Herald