In recent times, Extension Gunners have been hogging the headlines, especially after receiving a P2 million sponsorship from Dada and Ismail families. The sponsorship excited supporters of a club that has struggled financially.
Following the windfall, Gunners managed to attract a number of big name players. But things seemed to have fallen apart after Rollers’ massacre.
According to reports, defenders Katlego Koobake and Gabriel Bokhutlo did not train for two days as their house was locked-up due to outstanding rental.
Further, winger Topo Piet and defender Tshepo Maikano are said not to have trained a day before the tournament as their house did not have water and electricity.
“As much as people would think that these are small things, it made life difficult for the technical team to plan well when they did not have a full squad training regularly. As the manager he (Coetzee) was supposed to have ensured that the players were happy ahead of such an important tournament. The thing about Coetzee is that he was bound on sabotaging the technical team and indeed he achieved his goals. If everything had gone according to plan, there was no way we could have suffered such a humiliation at the hands of Township Rollers,” said a source.
The source further said that Coetzee made things worse when he pitched up at the camp with his girlfriend, something frowned upon in any football club.
“The problem is that there were some people he did not want in the technical team and he felt that for him to get back at them he has to go that route,” the source continued.
Approached for comment, Coetzee scoffed at the allegations, saying that the technical team wants to shift the goalposts.
He said there is no doubt that the technical team came with a poor team hence the humiliation. “Those guys (technical team) failed us on the day now they want to come up with unfounded allegations. On a day like that, how can you leave a national team goalkeeper on the stands? Secondly, Gabriel Bokhutlo was played in the wrong position (left-back) while we had Sissoko (Koobake) on the bench who is a natural left-back. There were so many things the technical team got wrong on the day and they have to take responsibility,” said Coetzee.
He dismissed allegations that he had brought his girlfriend to the camp, saying that he never spends the night at the club’s camp.
He said the allegations came from people hell bent on dragging his name in the mud. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports indicate that Gunners’ Serbian coach, Dragojlo Stanojlovic, is walking a tight rope following the results last weekend.
He has been given few games to prove his credibility or face the exit door. Already, goalkeeper trainer Khalid Niyonzima and assistant coaches Tummie Duiker and Kopano Phakedi have been fired from the club.
