Dynamos unveil Pasuwa at press conference

By Eddie Chikamhi

HARARE- Dynamos coach Callisto Pasuwa has revealed that he cannot wait for the new season to start after he was unveiled as the substantive coach of the Glamour Boys in Harare yesterday.

Pasuwa who led the club to a league and cup double in the last season finally put pen to paper after agreeing to a three-year deal in a development that effectively closed the chapter in a tumultuous month for the club.

The former Dynamos midfielder was unveiled at a Press conference at the National Sports Stadium and immediately spelt out his goals for the new year.

Pasuwa appeared in a relaxed mood accompanied by the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Union leader Moses Chunga who helped broker a deal after negotiations with the Dynamos executive had broken down last week.

“Everything is okay now and most importantly I would like to extend my apologies to our fans for the disturbances that have been going on in the last few weeks.

“We have sorted out all things and I am happy with the new development. We are now waiting for the new season to start and I think we will begin our preparations on January 9,” said Pasuwa.

Most importantly, Pasuwa revealed that he will continue working with his backroom staff, who include assistant coach Tonderai Ndiraya, goalkeepers’ coach Tichaona Diya and team manager Richard Chihoro.

The DeMbare executive had left it to the coach to pick his technical team and the championship-winning coach revealed he was happy with the way he conducted business with his staff and decided to retain them.

Pasuwa said he was looking forward to a fruitful working relationship with his staff, the executive and the players and also said he was satisfied with a squad of 26 submitted to Caf for the Champions League next year. Dynamos managed to retain most of their players from last season and will be praying to continue from where they left off.

“I think we are okay with the players that we have but we will have to look around if we can add one or two more. The aim obviously will be to retain all the cups that we won in 2011 and at least to reach the mini league phase of the Champions League next year,” he said.

Pasuwa would expect nothing short of maximum support from the executive after the club chairman Kenny Mubaiwa insisted he would continue the good working relationship that won them the title and the Mbada Diamonds Cup.

Mubaiwa said they had put behind them the problems they may have faced in the last month as they now hope for a new beginning. “For the past three or four weeks it has been Dynamos and Pasuwa in the newspapers with the same issue but I am happy to say that today we finally reached an agreement.

“Pasuwa has signed a three-year contract. The main issue that we were not agreeing on was the salary but we have reached common ground and we cannot reveal the figures,” said Mubaiwa.

Pasuwa joined the club in August on a short-term pact that runs out today. But with his achievements in that short period, it has been unanimous that Pasuwa had done enough to convince even the worst Doubting Thomases that he was the right man for the Dynamos job after completing a rare double in a difficult season.

He had taken over the team with 11 games remaining in the season and with Dynamos trailing log leaders FC Platinum by 12 points and went all the way to lift the championship and then winning the inaugural Mbada Diamonds Cup.

But following protracted negotiations for a fresh deal, Dynamos announced last week that they would not renew his contract after the parties had failed to reach an agreement for a longer tenure.

It had to take the intervention of the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Union led by Dynamos legend Chunga to broker a deal after Dynamos had advertised the post in the newspapers.

Chunga brought together both parties and a deal was signed yesterday in a welcome development to the club’s faithful who had wanted the team to continue with their formidable performances into the new year.

Chunga, who is now coaching Gunners, said the parties failed to get their communication channels properly, which led to the breakdown of the negotiations. “As I have always said, communication is very important. It was difficult for both sides to come together because they had no common platform.

“They should have talked about this issue behind closed doors and then come out with a common answer before going to the media. I think that is where things went wrong,” said Chunga.

The Dynamos executive revealed they are going ahead with their plans for the new season which include a camp in Nyanga and are also bracing for the proposed friendly against Kaizer Chiefs which was pledged to be hosted by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.

Dynamos chief executive Nyika Chifamba told the press that they are also looking forward to another international friendly against Elvis “Chuchu” Chiweshe’s Gaborone United in Botswana.

“Dynamos is a big brand and we must work together as we hope to celebrate our 50th anniversary in style in 2013. We are playing in the champions league next year and we hope to last the distance through everyone’s assistance in the Dynamos family.

“The fact that Chunga, one of our loyal sons has stepped in to resolve a contentious issue shows how we should go as a family,” said Chifamba.

“We would like to thank Moses Chunga for his role in mediating between the two parties and I can say he did a great job because we ended up agreeing on something and signing the contract through his efforts.”