Dutch coach for Highlanders FC?

LONG-SERVING Highlanders benefactor Tshinga Dube has launched an audacious bid to lure a Dutch coach to take charge of the Premiership giants ahead of the 2016 Castle Lager Premiership season. Dube has lined up unheralded Erol Akbay whom he is hoping will be considered for one of the toughest coaching jobs in the country.

It has also emerged that former Warriors and Nigeria gaffer Clemens Westerhof also applied for the job together with seven other foreign nationals. Westerhof is one of three Dutchmen, together with Peter de Jongh, who are understood to have also put in their bids. Ex-Malawi coach Kinnah Phiri, who has previously coached South African Premiership side Free State Stars, has also submitted his application while American Jeff Cook, Ethiopia's Anteneh Eshete and Scotsman Des Bulpin are also in the race.

Highlanders chief executive Ndumiso Gumede confirmed having received Akbay's CV from Dube and said the Dutchman's papers had been lumped together with all the applications. "It's true that there is a name and CV that has been submitted by Tshinga Dube and we also have a number of applications that we've received.

"We'll close the applications this week and thereafter the executive together with a representative of the Human Resources committee will deliberate on the issue,'' Gumede said. Dube, however, believes the coach he has identified would be affordable for Highlanders.

"The way forward is simple? Highlanders have no coach. When they recruited (Bongani) Mafu, I questioned his credentials because there was very little that we knew of him except that he was coaching some junior schools in UK," said Dube. "But the problem is that the current Highlanders leadership now believes that the team is theirs and that it's no longer for the community.

"I got a coach from Netherlands (Akbay) and this is part of my personal efforts to help the club. I'm not looking for any glory but I'm just driven by my passion for Highlanders and to see Zimbabwe football succeed in general.

"I've since forwarded the coach's CV to the Highlanders executive and they'll decide from there onwards. I think he's a good man who's keen to work in Africa and for him it's not really about the monetary incentives but also the experience of working in a country like ours and he'll not be that expensive.

"This isn't the first time I've helped to bring a foreign coach to Highlanders, it must be remembered that I brought in Eddie May and for three years we won the league. I had received a request from James Mangwana-Tshuma (late former Bosso chairman) to get a coach and I paid for May's salaries,'' Dube said.

Dube, who also helped to look after Kelvin Kaindu's welfare during his stint as Bosso coach, also maintains that the Zambian was unfairly dismissed "when he had been doing a good job at Highlanders.

"Kaindu is a very good coach and I bought the car that he was using. When he was fired the team had finished fourth in the league and they always put up a strong fight for the championship sometimes losing on goal difference or by just a point and to me he's a good coach.

"I've tried my best here and there to create projects like the bar for the club and this was to try and raise funds. I also gave them some money to start up these projects. I've been helping my team since the 1980s and it's an on-going exercise.

"We should be competing and running at the level of such clubs like Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs or Mamelodi Sundowns but we can't do that with the present executive. If you give nuts you'll get monkeys so pay the players well and look after their welfare very well and they'll reward you

"We've a lot of supporters who are outside Zimbabwe some of whom could be incorporated into the executive and work with the locals. You can have board members staying outside the country but still contributing meaningfully and that's modern business,'' Tshinga Dube said.