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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter
ONE of Dynamos coach Lloyd Chigowe’s most accomplished products Gilbert “Gidza” Mushangazhike has spoken glowingly of the lanky gaffer’s capabilities and is positive he can restore gloss to the fading Harare football giants. Chigowe will this season take charge of Dynamos for the first time on a substantive basis after he successfully steered them to safety last season while in temporary charge of the team.

He has since recruited a lot of new players at the Glamour Boys whom he believes will help the team achieve its targets this coming season.

And Mushangazhike, himself a rising coach whose Curriculum Vitae keeps on growing after he defied odds last season by guiding Northern Region Division One outfit Al-Buraak to safety despite taking charge in their last seven games, believes Chigowe will return glory days at DeMbare.

Chigowe is credited with having nurtured the likes of former Dynamos stars Chamu Musanhu, Tichaona Diya, Ernest Masango Chigama and Hope Chihota, among others.

Despite all that, he has lived in the shadows of Dynamos coaches and Mushangazhike is happy the man who did all the work on him before he grew to become a Warriors star has finally been handed the torch to lead the most successful team in the country.

“I know a lot of people doubt Chigowe’s capabilities. I am one of the players he helped develop. That man, I tell you, is a master in the game. It is just unfortunate that he has for so long been at the helm of Dynamos junior development project but he is the ultimate man when it comes to the game,” said Mushangazhike.

“In terms of modern application of tactics and technique development, one cannot look beyond Chigowe. He should be given room to express and implement his philosophy. Just give him time and space, Dynamos will be a force once again.
“Just see what he did when he took over on an interim basis last season. He is one guy who can easily turn around things even under difficult circumstances.

“In fact, almost the entire Dynamos team which went all the way to the final in the CAF Champions League in 1998 can confirm that Chigowe is a man who knows his trade. They all came through his hands and they were an accomplished group.”

Mushangazhike’s profile is on the upward trajectory with the highest point of his budding coaching career coming last year in Botswana when he took over a struggling top-tier debutants Black Forest side to a top-four finish which gave them a ticket to play in the CAF Confederation Cup-qualifying Mascom Top Eight tournament.

He, however, stepped down at the end of the 2017-2018 season as the club was facing some financial challenges.
Mushangazhike was then handed a task to save Al-Buraak from relegation with only seven games to do so to which he came out unscathed and accomplished the mission.

Mushangazhike, who has also had coaching stints in Germany and the Netherlands, is, however, not attached to any team at the moment.