By Raymond Jaravaza and Fungai Muderere
AXED Dynamos coach Lloyd “MaBlanyo” Chigowe is a bitter man! Bitter not because he no longer sits on the DeMbare technical bench. But miffed because he believes he got a raw deal from the powers-that-be at the Harare giants.
That his job at DeMbare was always going to be hanging by a thread was crystal clear from the word go yet his bone of contention is the time it took the club executive to kick him to the curb.
One win, three defeats and Chigowe was jobless before he could even plead his case for more time and a change in fortunes.
“How can a coach be fired after just three games that did not go as planned? You can’t judge a coach after three games when the season has just started considering the kind of preparations that the team had ahead of the new season?” asked the man nicknamed MaBlanyo.
To put it bluntly, Chigowe says Dynamos gave him a raw deal.
“From deep down my heart, I know that I got a raw deal because I was fired at a time a lot of things were not right at Dynamos. All things being equal, no one should have expected the team to hit the ground running following the kind of preparations we had,” he added.
The only silver lining in Chigowe’s sacking is that he negotiated a golden handshake from Dynamos.
The gaffer was fired a few months into a three-year contract.
“After discussions with the Dynamos executive, we agreed on a golden handshake that I’m entitled to. I cannot go into much detail as I have left everything in the hands of my manager (Denford Mutashu),” he said.
He has taken a sabbatical from football but cannot rule out a quick return to the game that gave him fame and ridicule in equal measure.
“Dynamos will always be home to me. I spent over 10 years at the club and will forever cherish the time I spent there but there is always a time when one should move on. Football is what I love and if the right opportunity knocks I will not hesitate to consider it. I still have a lot to prove, that I’m a football professional who can work and be successful outside of Dynamos,” he said.
Away from the meddling and busy city life of Harare, MaBlanyo spends his time in the serenity of the Chegutu vast lands where he runs a poultry project.
“It’s a sizeable project, with about 1 300 chickens, that I run with my wife. Life has to go on after football and as a breadwinner I have a responsibility to provide for my family.
“We are putting up additional structures to expand the project, a man must always have a fall back plan especially in football,” he says with a conviction in his voice that betrays a man who feels let down by the game that he loves so much.
Chigowe was replaced by another Dynamos son, Tonderai Ndiraya, whose football fortunes seem to be smiling for him at the moment.
A win and a draw are not a bad start for Ndiraya. B Metro
