Gaborone United head of communications, Herbert Letsebe, believes that things could have better if they could have fired their former head coach Major David Bright long time ago.
The changing and chopping of coaches at the Reds continued this season, disrupting continuity.
Major David Bright who was entrusted with leading the Reds to their second title in so many years once again did not finish the season.
He was accused of insubordination and failure to take control of the dressing room and when GU suspended him, it was clear that he was heading for the exit door.
To add more misery to their season, there was reportedly bad blood between some of the club’s seniors and striker Jomo Moatlhaping.
In the end just like Bright, Moatlhaping was left with no choice but to seek for greener pastures.
While GU is adored by many fans for their professionalism, it has been a mystery why their side has failed to show the kind of professionalism in the field of play by outsmarting the opposition and dominating the local scene.
They had a mathematical chance of winning the championship going into their last game of the season against FC Satmos in Selebi-Phikwe yesterday but for a club which has all the necessities they were expected to have been clear at the top. For Letsebe there have been so many factors which have led to their inconsistent run this season. “It was a bad season for us because since we came into office (in 2010), we wanted to win a trophy every season. We have not won a league title and that was one of our targets. We had a lot of challenges and we realized along the way that we will not achieve what we wanted (hence the decision to fire Bright),” Letsebe said.
He feels that if they could have long parted ways with Bright, they could have performed better and maybe challenged for the championship.
He said there have been signs of improvement since Bright’s contract was terminated last month following what was termed as an “under-performing” side and an unhappy dressing room.
“We do not regret the decision we took to part ways with the coach. This is proven by the results we registered after he left,” said Letsebe in their first open interview since Bright departed.
“Even the attitude of the players has changed and it is what we want to see, a happy dressing room. We could see that we’re not heading anywhere hence the change.”
He confirmed that very soon they will be announcing a new head coach to succeed Bright.
Interim coach George Mogopodi has not been considered for the post as he has a fulltime job elsewhere and he will continue as an assistant once a fulltime mentor is indentified.
While rumour mill says that current technical director Rahman Gumbo is the man to succeed Bright, GU official has failed to neither confirm nor deny.
“All I can tell you is that we’ll be calling press briefing soon to announce our new coach. We want a coach who will be take charge for a long time though we cannot predict what will happen in the future. We need a coach who will make GU compete and win things at the same time,” said Letsebe.
