Gaborone United (GU) is expected to announce Beston ‘Quicksilver’ Chambeshi as their new coach sometime this week.
The former Power Dynamos coach is expected to arrive in Gaborone tomorrow evening after a three-year absence in Botswana. The soft-spoken gaffer replaces Zimbabwean Elvis Chiweshe who was fired earlier this year after some unconvincing performances by the Reds.
In the absence of a head coach, GU has been under caretaker coach Philemon Makhwengwe who has revived the fortunes of the Reds since taking over from Chiweshe. The Reds have managed to pick up some positive results along the way and they are currently in the semi-finals of Mascom Top 8 and Coca-Cola Cup quarterfinal. This is something many people within GU argue that they would not have achieved if Chiweshe was still in charge.
The unfortunate thing about Makhwengwe is that he cannot be appointed on fulltime basis as he is an employee of the Botswana Football Association (BFA).
While GU officials have rubbished the reports that Chambeshi is their new man, sources within the club have indicated that the deal is almost done. An undisclosed official of GU was supposed to have travelled to Zambia last week to seal the deal before their man arrives in the country.
“They (officials) can deny it but I can assure that we’ve long agreed with Chambeshi to take over the reins at GU. The only challenge has been that he was contracted to Power Dynamos but that has been sorted out,” said a source.
Chambeshi’s appointment at the Reds is a closely guarded secret that even club’s secretary Herbert Letsebe laughed off when he was quizzed about the Zambian gaffer.
“Whoever said we’ve appointed Chambeshi is misleading you. The reason why we’ve delayed in the appointment of the new coach is that he’s contracted to his club and we did not want to hamper our negotiations. What I can assure you of is that he is arriving on Monday and we’ll gladly introduce him,” said Letsebe on Friday.
The GU official confirmed that one of their committee members is out of the country where he was expected to finalise everything with the new coach. Chambeshi has coached in the country before as he had two spells at Mochudi Centre Chiefs. He was in charge of Magosi side which was crowned the league champions in 2008 after going the whole season without registering a loss. After finishing second to GU in 2009 when the league was decided on the last day, the Zambian gaffer fell out of favour. Though some Chiefs’ officials claimed at the time that Chambeshi left because he has been called to serve in the national Under-20 back home, it was later revealed that Chiefs’ officials let him go because of what they termed ‘poor tactics’.
Reports in Zambia indicate that Chambeshi is not happy at Power Dynamos as players are undermining his authority. The players are said to have appealed to the management to reinstate fired coach Fordson Kabale who has been replaced by Chambeshi.
