By Eddie Chikamhi
The Dynamos board have leapt in defence of their players after an audio recording exposing divisions in the team and a sensational breakdown of trust in the Glamour Boys’ dressing room was leaked by a supporter.
The recording, apparently was done by an unnamed supporter as he drove home with the players on Sunday evening, moments after the Glamour Boys had disintegrated in spectacular fashion to hand bitter rivals CAPS United a draw in the latest Harare Derby.
DeMbare board secretary Mthokozisi Nkosi yesterday brushed aside the extent of the damage the recording could cause in their camp.
The players who featured in the recording made some damning statements especially against assistant coach Murape Murape, who they felt was too vindictive and not qualified for the job while dismissing team manager Richard Chihoro as a “n’anga and snake.”
The players expressed their admiration for their coach Lloyd Mutasa although they were sceptical about his decision to freeze out senior players like Roderick Mutuma because of his wayward behaviour.
Nkosi, who admitted the players made some reckless statements in that conversation, said they would not charge anyone as “those things happened in the heat of the moment, when the team had just registered a disappointing result by giving away a three-goal lead in the last five minutes of the game.”
He said the conversation was their “private life” and “it was unfortunate it found itself in the media.”
“These guys are friends. In any social set up there are certain people who are friends with these players. They actually drive home together with these players most of the times after games. So this is what happened on this particular incident.
“After a match these guys were going home with someone they are familiar with and of course they are just bound to burst. Naturally, I think everyone was affected by that match result because we had all thought we had the three points in the bag.
“So as players they are bound to react in different ways. Of course they were just talking. Different things can be said about an incident but to suggest it really warrants to say there are problems at Dynamos, no I would not want to say that.
“Maybe our issue could be ‘what was the motive behind recording that conversation?’ But again in the era of social media, just like what people are doing, you know people get excited and end up recording themselves with their girlfriends. It’s the same in this particular conversation.
“Why then it had to leak, I don’t know. But I would not really want to give it the prominence to say it’s now something that is exposing problems within Dynamos, I think that will be a bit is unfair,” said Nkosi.
The DeMbare board member yesterday visited the players at their training session and engaged the head coach Lloyd Mutasa and his technical team.
Nkosi also defended Mutasa, who on Sunday hinted that some players had sabotaged him.
DeMbare were leading 3-0 with five minutes remaining of regulation time, but CAPS United fought back to level matters courtesy of Dennis Dauda’s brace and another goal by Amon Kambanje in the last seven minutes of action.
“I think those comments that he gave on Sunday, I would say it was possibly a reaction to what had just happened because all of us we were very much upset with what had happened; to give away that healthy lead.
“Some people score in the first minute of the game and defend that goal in 89 minutes, but we conceded three in the last five minutes.
“It was quite weird and to be honest we don’t know what hit us. He knows better why he said those things, but I think it was a reaction based on what had transpired.
“He didn’t have, in my view, an explanation to what had transpired because that was the moment he also needed to have done some self-introspection to see what he had done wrong as a coach that contributed to that result.
“But at the end of the day it’s a collective result and we are all to blame as a club and it’s something we have to look at because we don’t want a repeat of that in the future,” said Nkosi. The Herald
