As Gaborone United (GU) readies to unveil a whole new Technical Committee, the team’s administrators as well as football commentators believe the club should now concede defeat and abandon its quest to challenge for league honors.
In what has by far been a turbulent and underwhelming season for GU; the team, which lies fifteen points behind log leaders Township Rollers, is expected to unveil its new coach in two weeks time. The new coach will be the team’s third this season. So far, this season GU has seen two coaches, namely Allen Gumbo as well as interim coach Dragjilo Stanojlovic go past its revolving doors in quick succession. After Gumbo was shown the door following the team’s horrid start to the season, he was immediately replaced by Stanojlovic, who was the team’s Technical Director. However, with GU blowing hot and cold, ‘Drago,’ as Stanojlovic is affectionately known, together with the entire GU Technical team, were also shown the door this past week. Speaking in an interview, GU Chairperson Rapula Okaile said the incoming coach will not be expected to contend for the league title.
“This appointment was done more with an eye on the future than anything else. We have already been bumped out of the Mascom Top 8 and we are also off the pace in the league race, so we have no expectations on the incoming coach to win the league title this season,” said Okaile.
He however said that even though they have no hopes to win the league title, there is expectation that the new coach and his technical team will ensure ‘Moya goleele’ finishes the season in a respectable position, with fourth position as the target. While expectations will be lowered for the new coach, the GU Chairman said it will be a different matter next season and going further into the future.
“Our intention is simple, to be the best club locally and to win silverware next season. From there, we will look to be one of the best clubs in the region and in the continent,” Okaile said. On why the entire Technical Team was relieved of its duties, Okaile said the plan is for the coach to start on a very clean slate and to be able to make his own decisions without influence from anyone. Commenting on the issue, football commentator and coach, Innocent Morapedi, concurred that it will be ‘mission impossible’ for GU to challenge for league honours. “For GU to challenge for league honors there will have to be failure of massive proportions for teams like Rollers, Orapa United and Mochudi Centre Chiefs. The best they can hope for is that the incoming coach can fix the team’s current problems. But more emphasis should be placed on next season,” Morapedi opined. He further said should the incoming coach manage to fix GU’s problems on time, he will be regarded as a hero, more so that he will have to bring in a few new players during the current transfer window. According to Morapedi, even if the coach does not manage to get the team going from the word go, he can always be given reprieve as he will be rebuilding.
