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Callisto Pasuwa

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
OUTGOING Dynamos coach Callisto Pasuwa has accused the club management of acting in bad faith and believes he was no longer a wanted man at the Premiership champions.

Pasuwa met with club secretary-general Webster Chikengezha on Monday, the first time he has done so since he revealed that he would be leaving DeMbare at the end of his contract on December 31.

The only correspondence Pasuwa had last received from Chikengezha was a letter in September asking that he submits a list of players he felt should be retained by the club.

“It is important to note that the club is required to give three months’ notice to the player if he still has a running contract,” read Chikengezha’s letter.

“If you offload a player in December, the club will be required to compensate the player and if he does not get a team then we will be stuck with a player for the whole year.”

After that correspondence, it is alleged that there was no further communication between the management and their coach.

Pasuwa, however, surprised even his own bosses when he snatched the championship title from under the grasp of ZPC Kariba, who led the table with a two-point advantage, until the final Sunday of the league programme.

But it is the letter he got from Chikengezha on Monday, which the coach said confirmed his suspicion that the executive had long decided they would not be extending his stay at Dynamos beyond 2014.

Chikengezha made it clear that the coach would not be given any special dispensation and would be treated like any aspiring Dynamos coaching candidate.

“We would like to inform you that your contract will be expiring on 31 December 2014. The board of directors and the executive committee would like to appreciate the work you did in the last three years.

“Should you wish to renew the contract, you are required to submit your application, which shall be considered among other applications,’’ wrote Chikengezha.

Pasuwa, however, felt the contents of the letter from his secretary-general and the events towards the end of the season “vindicated his decision to quit on December 31’’.

“I have always felt that with the difficulties that I have been experiencing and the attitude shown by the executive this season it wasn’t about winning the championship.

“Maybe winning the championship complicated things for them a bit, but I think when everyone thought we had failed, it had already given them ammunition to justify their decision to look for and talk to other coaches.

“I don’t think the letter they gave me can be considered a contract offer because it is clear that I am being treated like any ordinary man in the street who should have to wait to see when the post would be advertised and then apply for it.

“If I was someone they really wanted, I think they would have long asked that we sit down, sort my issue then discuss which areas we need to beef up in terms of players, but that never happened and one cannot fool himself that he is still wanted by a club in such a situation,’’ Pasuwa said.

Although Chikengezha has asked all members of the technical crew to re-apply, it is has also been the norm that the club asks the head coach to pick his backroom staff and chances of Philemon Mutyakureva, Tichaona Diya and Richard Chihoro retaining their positions appear to hinge on the new man who will take charge.

The trio was appointed by Pasuwa, with Mutyakureva replacing Tonderai Ndiraya.

Speculation has also been rife that DeMbare are targeting Zambian gaffer and former Highlanders coach Kelvin Kaindu as Pasuwa’s replacement when they name their new mentor in January.

Should he be confirmed coach, Kaindu would become the second Zambian after the late Keegan Mumba to take charge of Dynamos.

If they do appoint Kaindu, it would also mean that Dynamos would also yet break with a 10-year resolution that had been made by their late board chairman Richard Chiminya and his leadership.

After the Mumba era, Chiminya declared that “only former Dynamos sons should take turns to coach the club because we have so many of them’’.