Chihoro kicked out

By Grace Chingoma

The winds of change have blown in the Dynamos technical department and swept away long-serving team manager Richard Chihoro who has since been reassigned within the club set-up.

Chihoro leaves the team manager’s post after serving in that role for seven consecutive years. The 61-year-old becomes the biggest casualty in the club’s technical department which has been handed a fresh mandate by the executive.

His departure also comes as a surprise for the man who was very influential in DeMbare’s dressing room as he survived many tsunamis with a number of head coaches and assistant coaches coming and going.

Chihoro, somehow, was always the last man standing. But his familiar face will this season be nowhere near the DeMbare dugout. He began serving as the team manager in 2011, at the same time coach Lloyd Mutasa got his first appointment as the leader of the ship. He remained at the club when Mutasa was relieved of his duties later that season and Pasuwa was appointed coach.

Tonderayi Ndiraya and briefly, Portuguese Paulo Jorge Silva, also came on board and Chihoro retained his position. And when Mutasa bounced back as coach of the Glamour Boys, Chihoro was still there to welcome him.

Many conspiracy theories were presented as reasons for his continued stay at the Harare giants amid allegations he was the juju man for the club. He dismissed these allegations. However, the Dynamos executive have decided to give their head coach all the powers to pick his backroom staff.

And Mutasa has let go the man who was assistant coach to David Mandigora in 2007 when the team won the league, ending 10 years of waiting and went on to shine in the Champions League the next year by reaching the semi-finals. Yesterday, club secretary-general Webster Marechera said Mutasa will appoint a new team manager.

“I can confirm that he is no longer the team manager, but he is still within the system. It is also the area of the head coach, he is the one who recommends the people he wants to work with in the technical team.

“We are preparing for a new season, with new strategies as well as conforming to club licensing and so forth, so some things are bound to change,” said Marechera. The Herald