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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Acting Sports Editor
SOON to be out of contract defender Peter Muduhwa needs to know that he is not indispensable to Highlanders as the club cannot continue bowing down to his ever changing contractual demands, a highly placed source has said.

As it emerged yesterday that Muduhwa is being influenced by a Harare based biological relative to continue dragging his feet, the club said it was aggressively negotiating with the player but would be quick not to plunge into unnecessary promises that will leave the institution reeling in more debt.

“He’s playing hide and seek and speaking with a forked tongue. His father in Harare is apparently pressuring him in some direction that he’s unwilling to communicate.

“The signs are that of a player creating a bidding war. I suspect he’s like Gabriel, trying to get the most out of those who have expressed interest in him. The club has agreed to all of his requests even where he has come back with changed clauses.

“At some point and soon too Highlanders will draw a line in the sand because it can’t negotiate/beg forever.

“It will have to cut off the finger and deal with the process of replacement,” said a source very close to the negotiating process.

Club chairman Kenneth Mhlophe recently told our sister paper Sunday News that they had given the player an ultimatum to make up his mind on whether he wants to sign for the club or not.

“Peter Muduhwa is still playing hide and seek with us. He makes promises that he will meet with us which he never fulfils.

“We gave him a 24-hour ultimatum to decide what he wants to do because the coaches want to plan for next season,’’ the Highlanders chairman was quoted saying.
Contacted on the progress of the negotiations yesterday, Highlanders chief executive officer Nhlanhla Dube said the process was still on going but hinted, just like his chairman, that it will not go on forever.

“We continue to engage aggressively in our negotiations with the player but we want to state clearly that we cannot also promise things that the club cannot afford.

“We are strongly adhering to what members have said and demanded which is debt reduction not debt creation.

“While we want to keep the best that we can keep, we surely cannot go beyond our means, something which is haunting us even now, many years down the line, so when we fail in our bid to have the player it would strictly have been on the basis of wanting to keep the club as a going concern now and in the future.

“We can’t blow the budget which has been the main reason behind this legacy debt,” said Dube.

Bosso are reeling on a debt of close to a million dollars which has been accumulating over years and a large chunk of the debt is over money the club would have promised players during negotiations.

Muduhwa has since 2015 been a permanent feature in the Highlanders first team when former Bosso coach, Bongani Mafu brought him back on loan from Bulawayo Chiefs. In 2016, Muduhwa was voted among the 11 Soccer Stars of the Year.

Besides Muduhwa, Highlanders who recently lost its vice skipper Gabriel Nyoni, is yet to tie down central defender Tendai Ndlovu who is on holiday in South Africa but indications are that the process will merely be a formality.

Preseason preparations are expected to start in the next few weeks ahead of the start of the 2019 season in March.