Dynamos unveil master plan to win league title

By Eddie Chikamhi

Dynamos have raised the stakes, in their bid to win the Castle Lager Premiership crown, by rolling out a Masterplan in which players will not only receive a huge boost in their incentives but are guaranteed a financial windfall should they reach the Promised Land.

The Harare giants do not have the deep financial pockets of rivals FC Platinum, who are promising their players almost five times what Dynamos are getting, but the Glamour Boys believe they can still make the best use of the resources they have.

Dynamos have devised a strategy, where they are approaching the remaining seven matches on a game-by-game basis, with financial rewards to the players expected to rise as the campaign to land the league championship reaches its climax.

DeMbare are desperate to end the curse, where they have spent the last three years as bridesmaids in the Premiership race, and want to return to the winners’ podium.

In the past few seasons, Dynamos’ championship campaign has been paralysed by in-fighting between the players and the executive, at crucial stages in the race, because of the leadership’s failure to reward players for their efforts.

But there has been a refreshing change in the way the Glamour Boys are doing business this season and on Friday the club’s leadership met in the capital and came up with a Masterplan to keep their players happy and focussed.

The DeMbare leadership have also promised their players a financial windfall, whose package remains undisclosed right now, should they end three years of finishing second, in the race, by winning the championship.

The Glamour Boys are locked in a tight battle for the league championship with champions Motor Action and FC Platinum, with the two clubs holding a slender one-point advantage over DeMbare.

Callisto Pasuwa and his men have quietly cut the deficit from nine points to just one point, thanks to a good run that has seen them winning all their last four league matches. Ironically, both Motor Action and FC Platinum have choked under pressure during that period.

The DeMbare executive, who seem to have been impressed by the team’s good run of form in recent weeks, met last Friday to devise ways to boost the team’s morale in the final home stretch.

Starting from the 4-0 drubbing of Zimbabwe Saints last Sunday, the players received added incentives in their winning bonuses and more should be coming their way as the battles rage towards the end of the marathon. This week the Dynamos players were paid almost twice, their normal winning bonuses, after their win against Saints as the Glamour Boys rolled out their Masterplan.

And, given that more is on the way as the race reaches its climax, Dynamos players could be in for some rich pickings should they go all the way and win the race. DeMbare chairman Kenny Mubaiwa yesterday said the Glamour Boys badly wanted to win the league title and they were leaving no stone unturned in their bid to achieve that.

There appears to be renewed hope in the Glamour Boys camp against a backdrop of a remarkable comeback after they slashed the gap between them and the leading pair to just a point. “We are just trying to see that we work together as a family so that we achieve one objective and. in this case, unity is very important,” said Mubaiwa.

“There are realistic chances of winning the title but that will only rest on the premise that we collect as many points as possible in the last seven games while we avoid dropping unnecessarily.  Of course, the players need motivation and that is being sorted out. We have promised them incentives.

“And we agreed to sit down with the players before each game and we will decide the figures according to the opposition we face and the challenge at hand.” Team manager Richard Chihoro confirmed yesterday that the Dynamos players received the morale-booster they needed.

“It’s true the players received an addition to their usual bonuses and everyone is happy about it,” he said. “I think the executive is doing a very good job and hopefully this will be able to spur the boys to work even harder. Right now the morale is higher in the camp and we are looking forward to our next game.”

But competition will always be difficult for them against FC Platinum who are understood to have dangled US$1 000 for each player, and twice the amount for the coaches, if they had won against CAPS United at the weekend. 

The match, however, ended 1-1 but Platinum have indicated that they will do everything to motivate their players so that they win the championship in their debut season. The Castle Lager Premier Soccer League matches will take a break this weekend to pave way for the inaugural Mbada Diamond Cup.

Dynamos will play bitter rivals CAPS United in the first round at National Sports Stadium on Sunday. The Glamour Boys will be hoping that striker Cuthbert Malajila, who did not train yesterday, recovers in time from a groin injury he suffered during Sunday’s match against Saints.

Malajila was being assessed by the medical team to ascertain the extent of the injury.