Dembare in another fresh start bid

In what has become an all Premier Soccer League familiar affair during every pre-season, former-champions Dynamos look set to have a completely new-look side next season with a number of senior players who played in last year's disappointing campaign not retained for the start of the new season.

Over 50 players turned up for DeMbare's first pre-season training session of 2019 at RBZ Sports Club in Mabelreign, Harare, last week and interest was on the new faces in attendance as well as those old players noticeable by their absence.

It was the number of players from last season who were missing in action that was kind of alarming.

Players such as Blessing Moyo, James Marufu, Godfrey Mukambi, Quality Kangadze, Kudakwashe Kumwala, Emmanuel Mandiranga, Phakamani Dube and Jimmy Tigere, to mention but a few, were nowhere in sight.

In the meantime, players like Ocean Mushure, Marshall Machazane, Kingston Nkhatha, Peace Makaha, Obey Mwerahari, Tonderai Mateyaunga as well as Cleopas Kapupurika have officially left the club.

There were only a few familiar faces, among them Kudzanayi Dhemere, Valentine Kadonzvo and Tawanda Macheke.

And to fill the big void Dynamos, not among the financially stable clubs in this country, have to resort to trials this time around and the last time they had trials in 2017, they finished second.

While Dynamos coach Lloyd Chigowe was barred from giving interviews to the media last week, club chairman Isaiah Mupfurutsa expressed his confidence on the team's preparations for the new season.

"We are in the process of preparing for the season, you must also be aware that we also have a number of prospective players and old players. In the next two weeks the technical team would have come up with a team they want use this season," Mupfurutsa told reporters.

Some of the players who came with prospects of impressing the Dynamos technical team include goalkeeper Munyaradzi Diya, ex-CAPS United forward Leonard Fiyado and former Hobro IK midfielder Tanaka Chinyahara.

Dynamos will be looking to have some foreign flavour in the team this season as Democratic Republic of Congo nationals Ngandu Mangala and Mbiyavanga Wombe also trained with the team.

But the RBZ Sports Club was abuzz about a player known as Appiah who is understood to be Try Andre Moffat. Moffat is a product of Wieslaw Grabowski and had a trial with 14-time Polish champions Górnik Zabrze a couple of years back.

"Watch out for a player called Appiah, he should be the signing of the season. He is easily the player at Dynamos as we speak even before the season starts. Just ask his teammates about him, they will tell you that he is bad news," remarked one of the Dynamos officials in attendance.

Veteran former Warriors player Edward Sadomba remains Dynamos' only confirmed signing, but the transfer window is still young.

After fighting relegation until the last three matches of the season, Dynamos are just setting modest goals ahead of the new campaign set to commence in March.

"We are working on coming up with a team that is going to compete effectively. We don't want to fight relegation this time around. We should play to the
level where we belong as Dynamos. But I don't want to talk much because we are competing with other teams.

"We are also rebuilding a team and when you are rebuilding you can't be too ambitious. But any result that will allow us to compete at the level that Dynamos is expected that's what we want and if we are to lift any silverware that will be a bonus," Mupfurutsa said.

"We are just urging everyone to be patient because we are coming from a difficult situation. It's a very few occasions when Dynamos have fought relegation, we don't belong there, but we belong in the top half of the league," he added

While uncertainty shrouds Dynamos pre-season preparations a storm has also been brewing in the boardroom after club president Solomon Sanyamandwe was reportedly pushed out of the Glamour Boys by board chairman Bernard Marriot.