Never mind the 2012 Standard Bank Knockout Trophy winner this Saturday; a hand of change will be responsible for the football history waiting to be written.
By now, the finalists, Mighty Wanderers and Silver Strikers should agree that for one to improve in life change is inevitable. To improve more, is to have changed often.
Despite that he secured them the Presidential Cup last season and a decent Super League third-place finish that earned them an automatic Standard Bank quarter-final slot, Wanderers sacked Frank ‘Franco’ Ndawa.
While a five-game winless run on all fronts was the final straw that broke Ndawa’s back, speculations punctuated the chop at Silver Strikers of the man he replaced, Thom Mkorongo.
The change, coming while Silver topped the TNM Super League first round on 31 points, was as swift as it was well-calculated, Silver vice-chairperson Daud Ntanthiko agreed.
“What happened was, by far, no coincidence. We hired Ndawa after creating room for him,†Ntanthiko noted on Tuesday.
Under caretaker coach Felix Fosco, Wanderers drew 1-1 with Escom United in the first leg of the quarter-final before winning the second leg 2-0. On Saturday, his tenure was climaxed by a 4-3 dismissal of Big Bullets.
Fosco, seen as an old school coach with limited success during his Sucoma days, is yet to lose. Ndawa too, has posted an impressive 3-1 win then a 1-1 draw with Blue Eagles as well as the comprehensive 4-1 pounding of Civo United in Sunday’s semi-final.
Like Zambia, which fired Italian coach Dario Bonnetti after sealing their 2012 Africa Cup of Nations finals for tried-and-tested Frenchman Herve Renard, the change might work, for either Silver or Wanderers, come Saturday.
But such are the standards at the Lali Lubani Road and the Reserve Bank, success is celebrated and forgotten instantly.
