Chunga set to bounce back at Dembare

Nomadic coach Moses Chunga is on the verge of bouncing back at Dynamos as relentless pressure continues to be brought to bear on current mentor Calisto Pasuwa from a hostile faction of the club's leadership.

Pasuwa, who guided Dynamos to their first league title in four years last season, has constantly come under pressure from the club, being issued with several ultimatums barely midway into the season.

The championship-winning coach was last week given a new three-match ultimatum. The ultimatum ends tomorrow when Dynamos take on Angolan side Interclube in the second leg of the Caf Confederation Cup in Luanda.

According to sources close to the developments, there are deep divisions in the club's executive committee, led by chairperson Kenny Mubaiwa, over Pasuwa's fate. Pasuwa has always been treated with deep suspicion since the beginning of the year when his contract renewal talks with the club initially stalled, and it seems, win or lose, some members of the club leadership are determined to force him out of the club.  

Some of the club's executive have become openly critical of the coach and query every decision he makes, whether it is on team selection or possible transfer targets. The source said the relationship between Pasuwa and the club executive has become so poisonous that some influential individuals within the club have made several attempts to sabotage results and make Pasuwa the fall guy.

One such attempt, witnessed by members of the media, happened shortly before the first leg with Interclube at Rufaro Stadium two weeks ago when the players refused to use their normal entry point into the stadium's changing rooms. Due to the accustomed belief in juju at the club, the players warned the bus driver not to use the normal entry point after noticing individuals they believed were sent by some members of the executive to cast bad luck on the team.

Meanwhile, Pasuwa has managed to win two out of the three games under his three-match ultimatum, against Quelation (1-0) and Blue Rangers (6-0). These results give Pasuwa a 66 percent success rate. But to the Dynamos executive, it appears this is still not good enough.

The only way Pasuwa can survive the chop now is if Dynamos do sufficiently well in Angola to progress through to the next stage of Africa's second-tier club competition. Even if Dynamos get a result in Angola tomorrow, Pasuwa's future is still in doubt as the executive has already lined-up Chunga to take up a role as technical advisor in the event they are not able to use the ultimatum to fire him.

A section of the executive believes Pasuwa does not have the necessary experience to lead the Glamour Boys to their second league title in a row. The arrival of Chunga for another coaching spell at the club, a source said, is likely to frustrate former Dynamos midfielder -Pasuwa - into leaving the club on his own accord. Chunga, who was recently sacked by police side Black Mambas due to poor results, is ironically the same person who brokered the contract negotiations between the club and Pasuwa.

A section of the Dynamos executive fighting in Pasuwa's corner has been quick to point at Chunga's woeful record at Mambas. The former Gunners coach lost all the six games he took charge of at Warumwa Warumwa.

Amidst the shenanigans, Pasuwa has decided to suffer in silence, refusing to entertain any questions from the media in recent weeks. He has designated all his media duties to his assistant Tonderayi Ndiraya in the last few weeks. What also makes matters worse is another power struggle that is on the verge of breaking out in the influential Dynamos board of directors.

A group led by club legend George Shaya is expected to file a court application soon to challenge the legality of the Richard Chiminya-led board of directors. Simmering tension has erupted in Chiminya's board with some members being accused of working with the "rebel" group. With a divided board and a divided executive, Dynamos could find itself plunging further into chaos.