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Saul Chaminuka

Jose Chingamuka Sports Correspondent
FOOTBALL is a game of controversy, both on and off the pitch, and the Soccer Stars of the Year awards brought with them their fair share of talking points. Players from ZPC Kariba took the three top awards and their gaffer scooped the Coach of the Year award. You can imagine how much pain it has caused the seven million fans that Dynamos claim to have. Visit any social media site and you can see how angry the blue half of Harare is?

Their anger has also been highlighted in The Herald and various newspapers.

Some people, who took part in the selection process are now disowning it.

The league is played over 30 games, home and away and, for ZPC Kariba, count that as 30 games away.

A magnificent second position, playing some attractive football any neutral would love, the panel looked at things on the field of play not the name of the team. To suggest that Saul Chaminuka is a failure who failed to land the title with the three best players in the country is outrageous.

Chaminuka is Coach of the Year because he brought the best out of his players in 30 away games.

Some of these players are veterans in the league, that cannot be denied.

But we need to look at how Saul made them better, hungry and able to deliver.

How many coaches failed with some of these players?

Saul proved his worth, proved his shrewdness and that alone makes him the best coach in the land.

The Big Brother mantra in our football is somewhat disturbing.

Dynamos won the league title by a single point and ZPC gave them a fright.

ZPC went on a 19-game unbeaten streak and, for a new team in the league, that was excellent.

For a coach, that is an achievement worth rewarding. Let’s not just say because Big Brother DeMbare won the title, on the last day, their coach was the best. It is Dynamos who should be giving Pasuwa a medal of honour and induct him in their Hall of Fame for winning four titles in a row.

The selection of the Coach of the Year and Soccer Stars come after an analytical look at how teams, players and coaches would have performed throughout the season.

If we wanted to honour a coach for the achievements he attained over the past four years, then we should have had a special award.

This past season Saul was the best coach.

The season is a marathon, a campaign.

Coaches have to know that at the end of the season they should have done enough to sway votes their way.

It’s like politics, one needs to present a better manifesto than the opponents to get the numbers to win.

The manifesto here was simple – manage your players well and play attractive football as well as make the best out of your circumstances.

For this reason, Saul swayed the votes his way and you cannot fault him for that.

After all, Dynamos failed to beat ZPC. The ZPC-Dynamos scenario plays out just like the Manchester City/Liverpool in the 2013-2014 Premiership season.

Manchester City were crowned champions but their coach was not voted Coach of the Year.

It was Brendan Rodgers of Liverpool.

The Player of the Year was Luis Suarez of Liverpool.

What trophies did Liverpool win?

None!

Their coach was rewarded for producing a competitive team that played beautiful football and represented the rebirth of a sleeping giant.

If winning the title meant that the coach would automatically become the Coach of the Year, then we wouldn’t bother with the vote.

We would wait for the season to end and select the best players from that team. Now that would be a farce, worse than what we are having now.

ZPC were the better team and had the better coach this season.

That’s an undeniable fact.

For our football to progress, we must come to accept that there are smaller teams that are growing.

If the so-called Big Three are not careful, then they will soon sink into oblivion.

ZPC brought a refreshing sight to our football and all credit must go to them.

They deserve all the accolades they won. It’s sad that some people believe that anything without Dynamos, or its people, renders our football useless.

The onus is now on ZPC to build on that momentum and become a force to reckon with in our football.

ZPC must also not forget that they have ruffled a lot of feathers and will be a marked team in 2015.

Jose Chingamuka can be contacted on the following platforms: email – [email protected] Twitter:@josechingamuka, WhatsApp:+27 78 658 3034