Bosso promote 3 players

WHILE the promotion of three players from the Highlanders development side is a welcome development, the big question now is will they be able to command  first team places?

In the last couple of years a number of players have been promoted but have failed to break into the starting line up.

In recent memory the likes of midfielder Dominic Jaricha and defender Vincent Moyo got promoted but failed to command first team jerseys.

They have since left the club.

Striker Mthabisi Ncube and goalkeeper Reward Muza who are also products of the Bosso 90 project have found it difficult to break into the first team.

This week the club announced that they had promoted Darlington Mukuli (22), Archford Faira (21) and Romeo Zimba (19).

The club however says they have come up with plans to make sure promoted players get game time.

"To have two or three players being promoted into the first team  is huge.

It's rare to find a team promoting three youngsters into the first team. We are thankful to the project.

We feel it's a system that is working.

We feel it will be more effective given we have made it a purely Under-20 side.

What we are trying to do as a club is speak to the coaches where we say if a boy is promoted to the first team there are a certain number of minutes that they have to play and the target for us is 450 minutes that is about five games then the coach would then know how he manages to achieve that," the club chief executive officer Ronald Moyo said.

"The reason we do that is we notice sometimes we don't want to just promote a player just for the sake of promoting but they should get game time.

For instance you are leading by two or three goals then in the last minutes you can throw in the youngsters so that they develop.

The players don't develop by training with the first team but they need to get game time.

This is why we are demanding that these players should get game time," he added.

"The advantage for us is we also play in invitational tournaments like the coming Independence Cup so it's an opportunity to give these youngsters game time  so that they develop.

As a club we have attended to the issue of players getting promoted and not playing in the first team.

Of late it has been difficult there was a lot of pressure and l understand what the coaches go through in a young man like Mthabisi Ncube when the team is not scoring it might have been too much weight on the player.

But once all is settled you will see these youngsters playing," said Moyo.

Technical manager, Mandla Mpofu also vowed to give the youngsters some game time.

"It has been our objective as a club to focus more on our development.

The most important thing is that when we were looking for players who can come and join us  we look at the development side.

"We always want to promote juniors.

I know people say we reject our boys from the developmental side but you have to look at the objective of the club.

As it stands we are gunning for the championship.

Do we have any player from our development side who is ready to come in and command a first team jersey? I would say no.

Are we having junior players that have been loaned that are getting game time and can come and play in the team? I would say yes.

Which is why we have brought Faira and Mukuli," said Mpofu.

"l think they are ready.

They are not here to make numbers, they are here to play.

They are not going anywhere,  the boys will get game time.

It's up to the seniors to get results such that we can be able to throw in the youngsters as the team will be under less pressure," said Mpofu.