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Erol Akbay

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS coach, Erol Akbay, and his How Mine counterpart Kelvin Kaindu have let the cat out of the bag, revealing frustrating working conditions at their respective clubs, saying players camp without eating and struggle to make ends meet.

In separate interviews, the coaches highlighted difficult conditions they have been working under all season and said players are not solely to blame for poor results throughout the season.

Dutchman, Erol Akbay, who has never shied from blasting the inept leadership at Bosso, said he was not to blame for the Bulawayo giants’ demise.

“I wanted to finish strongly, but things that are happening at the club are really frustrating. There are problems here and Highlanders need someone to come and sort things out. You know yesterday (eve of the How Mine game) the players had no food and ate late. We went to Harare and when we returned there were no meals for the team. How do they expect the boys to perform when they are not fed? These guys (executive) must take their job seriously,” said Akbay.

“The last two months have been bad and it’s not acceptable for a big club like Highlanders to have poor preparations for a game. Even the place where we slept when we lost 3-0 to Hwange was bad; not even animals can sleep in that kind of a place.

“Highlanders is a club for the people, but where are the people when the club is going through financial difficulties; the people are not in the stadium. This is why I say someone must come and fix this. I’m going home in two weeks and they will see what I’m talking about. Even before hiring the next coach, they need to sit down and really think about who they need,” said a visibly frustrated Akbay.

He will be leaving for his home country after Bosso’s final match of the season against Caps United next weekend.

Highlanders’ players embarked on industrial action over unpaid bonuses in the past few weeks and went for the Hwange league match having trained just once.

Akbay led Bosso to a third place finish last year and had been given a target of winning the league title this season, but the team looks set to end in either sixth or seventh position.

How Mine coach, Kaindu, also hinted that things were not well at the gold miners when he took a swipe at referee Philani Ncube for awarding Highlanders a controversial penalty in their 0-1 loss on Thursday.

“I manage a group of stressed players and to come here and be stressed by referees again is not right,” fumed Kaindu, who declined to comment further.

Kelvin Kaindu

In the build-up to last weekend’s Chibuku Super Cup final, Kaindu indicated that there were no glitters at How Mine when he told our Harare bureau that they badly needed the money more than Harare City, who went on to win the final 3-1.

The Zambian mentor, a devout Christian, has been playing a pastoral role to his players, giving them hope amid the challenges.

“When we were announcing the team, other players tell you they have no money for transport and you can see how difficult it is and where we are coming from.

“One thing probably that gives me a slight advantage is working as a pastor. It’s not easy to motivate somebody who hasn’t been paid. It’s probably the most difficult thing, you get on the field and you expect the guys to give you 100 percent because you want them to push, but what I can say is that the guys have done really well to reach this far. It’s because of hard work,” said Kaindu.

How Mine used to be one of the well sponsored clubs, but things have changed for the club which used to be backed by Metallon Gold, which has since changed to Bulawayo Mines. — @ZililoR