Pressure mounts for Wanderers
Beleaguered TNM Super League giants Be Forward Wanderers have attributed the team’s poor performance to erratic pre-season preparations in which their head coach Bob Mpinganjira was away on national team duty.
However, the Nomads supporters have stressed that the club executive is to blame for the team’s predicament and that it must resign following the team’s exit from Airtel Top 8.
Wanderers general secretary Mike Butao yesterday said Bob’s prolonged absence due to his appointment as Flames and Under-23 assistant coach had a negative impact on the team pre-season preparations.
“We seem to be having our pre-season now, trying different players and different formations when the league has already kicked off. We take the blame as executive committee. We should have taken action earlier when the head coach was away in Belgium with the Under-23 for a month instead of preparing the team during pre-season. Unfortunately, we never anticipated that he would be drafted into Flames on long term basis.
“We released Yasin [Osman] and Allan [Kamanga] officially. We have never released any statement regarding Bob because he is the solution to his own predicament. He cannot come and go any time he wishes, prioritising the national team like he is at Wanderers on secondment from FAM. His is a disciplinary issue. That is why we are not making any statement regarding Bob Mpinganjira,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nomads are expected to appoint a new coach this week.
“Albert [Mpinganjira] is only an interim coach. We intend to bring in someone permanent this week. We promise the supporters that we are looking within the country and beyond for a solution and we might start implementing this solution this week. It should also be noted that the coming coach will pick his own backroom staff,” Butao said.
“It’s unfortunate how things have panned out. We intended to get the Airtel Top 8 this season. We brought in Babatunde Adepoje for Yamikani Chester, Vincent Nyangulu and Peter Katsonga for Esau Kanyenda and Peter Wadabwa, Rabson Richard for [Precious] Sambani.
“Then we brought in an additional right-back in Hankie Machila as Stanley Sanudi has been playing as a right winger now. We also brought in a defending midfielder since we only had Manyozo in that position and Rafiq Namwera has a long-term injury,” he said.
But a Lilongwe-based Wanderers fan Dyson Kondeni Musa said the executive, having accepted that they are to blame for the team’s poor performance, should resign and pave the way for others.
Soccer analyst Kim Kamau also blamed the executive committee for their poor decisions.
“The executive is entirely to blame for the mess the team is in. When did they realise that Bob is with the national team?.
“The team has plenty of problems off the pitch,” he said.
Wanderers’ season turned from bad to worse after they were booted out of the Airtel Top 8 following a 2-0 aggregate loss to Silver Strikers.
The Nomads lost 1-0 at Kamuzu Stadium in the first leg and the same score line in the return leg at Silver Stadium.
They also lost 3-1 to Blue Eagles in the Super League and 1-0 to rivals Nyasa Big Bullets in Chifundo Charity Shield.
