Marian Marinica is the new Zimbabwe Warriors coach and whether we like it or not, he will be with us to drive the team until November, 2026.
What Zifa settled for is what Zimbabwe can afford and what now needs to be done is to give the coach all the support he needs rather than to dismiss him before he even resumes his duties.
Some of us would have preferred Stuart Baxter and we believe everyone else had his own choice, but the decision lay with Zifa and they have plenty of reasons why they settled for the Romanian.
We are also not sure whether some of our preferred choices Baltermar Brito and Tom Saintfiet applied for the job, but Marinica is what our football leaders felt was the best and we need to move on with them.
Surely, the truth is that we were never in any way going to attract top notch coaches because financially our national coach's budget is way down the scale and far much less than what some small clubs in Africa are offering.
We should not listen to exaggerations that Sam Alladyce and Harry Redknapp — among other big names — applied for the Warriors job because they would never do so — even if the financial pickings were a bit higher.
Those coaches have advisers who do research on their behalf and it would be folly if not madness to believe reports suggesting that they applied for the Warriors job a day or two after it was advertised by Zifa.
What we should be happy about is that we finally have a national team coach who qualified Malawi to the knockout stage of Afcon, an achievement we are still striving for since attaining independence in 1980.
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That he was sacked in Malawi or that he did not last the distance of his contract in Liberia is neither here nor there but what is important is what he can offer us with all the player talent we have.
The danger is that whatever we shout out there about our coach hits the ears of the players and they end up losing faith and respect in the man who is supposed to lead them to Afcon and future glory.
The same support and the same respect that we gave to our most loved past coaches Reinhard Fabisch, Sunday Chidzambwa, Charles Mhlauri and Kalisto Pasuwa is the same honour we should accord Marinica.
To their credit, Zifa, were clever enough to offer Marinica a one year contract which means if he fails to deliver within that period he will be asked to leave.
This is more like a probation period and if the Romanian impresses, he will then be offered a long term contract at a budget Zifa can afford — which is fair.
We hope that in the few days of his appointment, Marinica will see enough of Zimbabwean players — at home and abroad — and will be spot on in his final team selection for Afcon 2025 without being influenced.
Surely, with just about a month to Afcon 2025, this is not the time for negativity but to give all the support to Marinica and to Nqobile Magwizi and his friends at Zifa.
The goal should be to reach the knockout stage of Afcon 2025.
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