Chigowe relishes ‘easy’ title challenge

Sport
Dynamos coach Lloyd Chigowe believes that building a team to challenge for Premier Soccer League honours is far much easier compared to last season’s task of saving the team from relegation.

Dynamos coach Lloyd Chigowe believes that building a team to challenge for Premier Soccer League honours is far much easier compared to last season’s task of saving the team from relegation.

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

A lot is expected from Chigowe and his technical team after DeMbare’s forgettable season in which the club escaped relegation.

Emphasising his desire to leave a mark at Dynamos, Chigowe maintained the task at hand would be far easier than that of saving the team from the dreaded chop.

“On an even scale, the challenge to save Dynamos was more taxing and was bigger than assembling the team that can win the championship. Now we have an opportunity to assemble a squad that we feel will represent Dynamos probably better than the guys we had last year,” Chigowe said in an interview with Standardsport.

“Dynamos is a big brand. Whether anyone likes it or not, they are the biggest thing to happen to local football and as a coach when you pass through you must leave a mark.”

Record championship winners DeMbare have not won the league in five years, with their last triumph in 2014 after they won it four times in a row. This is arguably the biggest job that Chigove has undertaken in local football in the 34 years that he has been a coach and is yet to win the league title.

However, Chigowe, understandably fearing the pressure, prefers to carry the underdog tag going into the new season.

“Realistically we first have to look at the quality of the opposition as well as the time the opponents have had with their squads before we can think about winning the title. FC Platinum are the obvious favourites, Ngezi have lost a few players, Manica Diamonds have come big and have brought in big names, and Triangle have been a competitive squad. Those are the teams to look out for, but we look to be in it as well and we relish the challenge,” the 54-year-old gaffer said.

The Glamour Boys have lost all but six players from the team that struggled in the league last year.

Goalkeeper Simba Chinani, defenders Jimmy Tigere and Godfrey Mukambi and forwards Kudzi Dhemere, Valentine Kadonzvo and Tawanda Macheke are the only players from last season’s squad remaining.

With a lot of new faces set to don the blue and white strip next season, the team may take time to gel.

The upcoming season is also interesting in that Dynamos will have a development team playing in the lower leagues, a project set to benefit the team in the long run.

“Dynamos have always been producing a lot of good players, but eventually we end up buying them back if we don’t sign them with the first team. The idea is to maintain our talented youngsters such that we have a feeder team so we won’t need to resort to trials or go on to the market unless it’s an outstandingly good player,” Chigowe said.