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Kudakwashe Mahachi

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
WARRIORS winger Kuda Mahachi’s stock at Lamontville Golden Arrows continues to rise with the modest Durban outfit’s coach Clinton Larsen revealing he wants to build his side around the talented former Chicken Inn talisman this season.

Mahachi had reverted to being a Mamelodi Sundowns player at the end of the 2016-2017 ABSA Premiership season in which he helped Arrows finish in eighth place.

He was rewarded for his excellence by having his stay at Arrows extended for another season after ironically being deemed excess to reigning African Champions Sundowns’ requirements.

The Brazilians, who still have two years of their contract with the forward, inked another season’s loan deal with Arrows for the winger’s services and he returned to the Durban club to reunite with fellow Zimbabweans Danny Phiri and Knox Mutizwa.

But it is the bid by Larsen to build his team’s charge for honours around Mahachi that underlined the winger’s qualities and rising stock.

Larsen told top-selling South African soccer magazine KickOff of how key Mahachi and Nduduzo Sibiya will be to their bid for yet another decent season.

Since his arrival at Arrows, Larsen has led the Durban side’s revival and guided them to a rare top-eight finish last season, while also reaching another club milestone by leading them to a first Nedbank Cup semi-final finish, where they were narrowly beaten by Orlando Pirates.

Arrows won promotion back into the ABSA Premiership at the end of the 2014-2015 season, the same period that Sundowns snapped up Mahachi after he had shone for the Warriors at the 2014 CHAN tournament in Cape Town.

Larsen, who took over after the departure of Serame Letsoaka, has won plaudits for rebuilding his team from a modest budget that ensures Arrows rely on promoting young players and signing players who are out of contract at other clubs.

“It’s been a learning curve even for me, just like it has been for the players since I came in a season and half ago.

“For me as a coach, coming into a new environment, a new set-up, learning the way things are done, getting to know the players, it’s been a good learning experience for me and an enjoyable one.

“I would be happy if we had done a lot better because I’m an ambitious coach and I’d also have liked to win trophies as well as help the team get as high up the league table as possible.

“But Rome wasn’t built in a day. We will keep trying to sign top players in key positions, keep trying to improve the squad, keep trying to improve the brand we play.

“I think if we keep on doing that, we are moving in the right direction and this team can only get stronger moving forward,’’ Larsen said.

With expectations also rising that Arrows could scale the heights they reached in 2009, when they won the MTN8 final with a 6-0 thrashing of Ajax Cape Town, Larsen has been cautiously optimistic, insisting it cannot be an overnight achievement.

But the coach believes that with Mahachi in his ensemble, such a feat can be achieved. “Firstly, you need to understand: do you have the players to play the way Papi Zothwane did in his day?

“If you look at this team, it’s different altogether. But if you look at the improvement from the previous season to last season, anybody that has watched us can see progress in the way we play.

“We are an exciting team that has a lot of speed. “We are trying to get back to the traditional Abafana Bes’thende style, but the key is to keep adding players that suit that brand of football and we will keep improving on that.

“It can’t happen overnight, but that it is the direction we are moving towards. The Nduduzo Sibiyas, the Kuda Mahachis . . . looking at those types of players, they are the ones that can bring that style back, but we need more of those type of players to get there,’’ Larsen said.

While Mahachi will be leading from the front in familiar territory in Durban, fellow Zimbabwean Michelle Katsvairo will be charting new grounds as he has been loaned out by Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs to Tanzanian outfit Singida United.

Katsvairo will link up with three other Zimbabweans at Singida — defender Elisha Muroiwa and midfielders Tafadzwa Kutinyu and Wisdom Mutasa.

Muroiwa and Mutasa joined from Harare giants Dynamos, while Kutinyu arrived from Katsvairo’s former club Chicken Inn.