Madinda mixes youth, experience

By Innocent Kurira

New Highlanders coach Madinda Ndlovu has invited three established Premiership players to train with his side as he aims to add experience to his youthful side.

Having done away with old horses such as Erick Mudzingwa, Simon Munawa, Ralph Matema and Tendai Ngulube, survivors from last season have been joined by players from the Under-18 and the Division One side Bosso 90.

Ndlovu, who is on a re-building exercise at the Bulawayo giants, has invited former Tsholotsho FC roving right-back McClive Phiri, former Bantu Rovers holding midfielder Munyaradzi Chitambwe and unheralded Aces youth Academy and former FC Platinum attacking midfielder Nigel Mukombe to train with Bosso.

In an interview yesterday, Ndlovu said they had invited the three players after realising they could add value to his youthful side.

“Training has been going on smoothly; we still have the same side that has been in camp in the past weeks. We have invited the three players so that we can have a look at them. We have seen something in these guys that we feel may add value to the team. However, that does not mean that they will automatically blend with the team; we have invited them so that we can see if they suit our desired type of play,” said Ndlovu.

Asked on when they are likely to put pen to paper, Ndlovu said: “I am guided by the negotiations we have with players as well as the player transfer deadline day. The arrival of these guys means we may have to loan some players or take some of them to the development side so that they get game time.

At the moment we do not have the final 30-man squad, but we are still working towards coming up with the best possible squad.”

He said he is happy with the pre-season preparations his side has had and is confident he can turn around the fortunes of the club.

“The main reason l am here is to bring back the exciting football to this club, but if you talk of targets, there is no coach who does not want to win anything, in as much as we are placing pieces together, there must be tangible results as to where we are going. As a coach l strive to win everything, but for now the fundamental thing is to give the youngsters who have been ignored for such a long time a chance to prove their worth.

“My six-week training programme is based on the conditioning of players, working on their technique, working on combinations and also their mental capacities. Our plan as the technical team is to work on those aspects before players can think of playing a football game,” said Ndlovu.

He stressed the need to put back structures into place by having a solid junior policy to feed the first team.

“The idea is to try and return to the correct path, bring back the Highlanders’ tradition or just bring back the Highlanders’ culture of doing things. I’ll put it in a way that we’re looking at a long-term kind of solution and also put in place a mechanism that is going to be followed by anybody who takes over at Highlanders after me, so that the culture doesn’t stray. That’s the biggest mandate that I have,” he said.

Bosso play their first competitive game against neighbours Chicken Inn in this year’s edition of the Zimbabwe National Army’s (ZNA) Cup semi-final on February 18 at Barbourfields stadium. The Chronicle