The Sunday News
Danisa Masuku
Former Zimbabwe Saints attacking midfielder, Douglas Mutema is now based in South Africa where he works as a truck driver. But he closely follows local football.
His heart bleeds for domestic football. Mutema feels the standard of the local game has dropped and the major contributing factor to this is the recycling of coaches.
“Recycling of coaches is contributing to the drop of standards in local football. Recycled coaches do not add value to the team but they bring the same old ideas to a different team”, said Mutema with emphasis.
Mutema is of the view that there has to be a change in the way football is run for the country to be competitive at regional and international level again.
“For instance, if a coach is fired for poor performance at Highlanders, the same coach is hired at How Mine. With that in mind our local football will not improve because the coach in question would bring his own philosophy which the players are supposed to grasp within a short space of time. But if the coach fails to post good results the supporters begin to voice their outcry and as a result the executive gives in and fires the coach again.”
Mutema has a solution to this: “To correct such a situation where an under-performing coach is fired for a string of poor results, I think there should be a system where if a coach is fired for poor performance from let’s say two clubs, he must be suspended and given some time to go and revisit his coaching skills at lower division sides.”
At the moment, all the clubs in the top tier league and Division One are required to hire a coach with at least a Caf coaching license.
Among those coaches in the top flight, most are the same faces that have been in the top flight league for the past few years with very few newcomers.
Mutema is of the view that upcoming coaches should be given a chance as they would bring new ideas.
“Football is a challenging profession. Sometimes we need to give new blood a chance to showcase what they can do,” Mutema said.
“We have a number of young and talented coaches out there but unfortunately clubs are afraid to give them the opportunity to try their luck. Clubs should take a leaf from Ngezi Platinum Stars who gave a young coach — Tonderai Ndiraya — a chance and he proved his worth,” he said.
Mutema said while experience is a valuable asset there is need for clubs and football authorities to work closely together. He blames Zifa and PSL for not coming up with a policy that guides local football clubs on hiring and dismissing coaches.
“The Premier Soccer League alone and the Zimbabwe Football Association must work hand in glove in coming up with a policy that will guide teams on their hiring and dismissing of coaches because failure for the two football authorities to intervene will lead to a continuous drop in standards,” said Mutema.
Mutema urged club executives to have patience with coaches and draw some lessons from the English Premier Soccer League.
“If you check a team like Arsenal, they have stayed with Arsène Wenger for more than two decades and the team has unleashed quality players that have plied their trade in fashionable leagues like LaLiga, talk of Thierry Henry who left Arsenal to turn out for Barcelona, Nicolas Anelka proved his worth under the headship of Wenger before he left to join Real Madrid just to mention but two,” he shares.
Turning to his football career, the former Zimbabwe Saints attacking midfielder played professional football at Bulawayo Amateur Football Association (Bafa) in 1973 up 1975. He then joined a Bulawayo football outfit — Eastlands and spent a season. But he says the competition for the jersey was stiff, as a result he had to find his way to Mashonaland United.
At Mashonaland United (now Zimbabwe Saints) he failed to make a grade in the first team, he then retraced his footsteps back to Eastlands where he spent just a season and returned again to Zimbabwe Saints in 1978.
At Zimbabwe Saints he played alongside William Sibanda, Philemon Dangarembwa, Andrew Kadengu, Musa Muzanenamo just to mention a few. Now it was a different script altogether as he was on a purple patch.
He has fond memories of that year.
“I was on top of my game and my style of play was similar to that of my once popular teammate William Sibanda and I contributed much to his success, as a result he was part of Soccer Star of the year finalists,” he said.
He attributes his run of success to excellent people’s management exhibited by his mentor Tendai Chieza.
“He was a coach who sat one down and explained how he wanted things to be done. He was like a father figure to us,” said Mutema.In 1983 Mutema suffered a career ending injury.
Factfile
Mutema is 64 years old.
He was married to Lilian Matika who passed away last year.
The couple is blessed with five children.
He fellowships at Methodist.
He has two houses — one in Barbourfields surburb and the other in Emakhandeni suburb.
