The ManicaPost
ESTEEMED followers of the game of football, thank you for finding time for interaction.Moses Chunga, the legendary former Dynamos and Warriors star can be described as a maverick — one who vacillates between eccentricity and unpredictability. Moody and broody sometimes, the Harare City coach is also famed for providing some of the most juicy quotes and seems never to run out of explanations to some of his free-spirited decisions or behaviour – which sometimes boarders on arrogance, depending on how one interprets it.
Known as the “Razorman” during his playing heyday — for his sharp skills and how he sliced opponents — Chunga evolved into a respected figure when he took his searing talents from chewing every blade of the grass on the pitch to pacing up and down the touchline shouting himself hoarse while barking instructions as a coach to the emerging generation of players.
That coaching journey has taken him back to DeMbare — where he once put together an exciting project spearheaded by budding youngsters like Samson Choruwa and Eddie Mashiri which was referred to as “Kidznet” by both adoring fans and appreciative neutrals — as well as to winning the championship with modest Gunners. He also had stopovers at the Glamour Boys’ Harare bitter rivals, CAPS United as well as Mutare-based army outfit Buffaloes.
And it is at DeMbare that he earned the new moniker — Bambo — owing to how he became a paternal figure whose chauvinism centred on championing his young side’s cause. Wherever he has been to as a coach, Bambo has been outlandishly outspoken and one who never shied from giving his piece of mind even if it did not give others peace.
At CAPS United he ruffled some feathers with his utterances that he was only at work so he provides for his family, but DeMbare remained his home, while after leaving Buffaloes he retorted that he would only consider returning to coaching if any club with ambitions lofty enough to match his own and not those battling relegation approached him for his services.
And then came Harare City knocking, whose proposal he accepted and got into a marriage with this season.
While he has had mixed fortunes at the Sunshine Boys so far, he attracted the ire of championship-chasing FC Platinum and Highlanders’ fans when he pre-emptied that he would field youngsters against table-topping CAPS United recently. And true to his word, he did just exactly that.
Accusations that flew around were that he had un-evened the playing field by giving MaKepeKepe an unfair advantage by playing them with a young, inexperienced team (but then the “kids” did impressively well and fought gallantly, looking menacingly dangerous at times as they succumbed to a first minute strike by veteran forward Leonard Tsipa, probably because they had not settled and grown into the contest when CAPS United struck).
For those fighting in FC Platinum’s corner to have complained was being two-faced or practising double standards — remember some unruly Kugona Kunenge Kudada fans had deflated several match balls belonging to Harare City in a Chibuku Super Cup semi-finals tie at Mandava just so to wind down the clock or they somewhat believed it would neutralise their opponents’ “juju”. Now, that certainly is not Fair Play; whose tenets Bambo was accused of violating against MaKepeKepe.
If those FC Platinium fans sought revenge against Harare City for inflicting a damaging 2-1 loss on the Zvishavane miners as the title race heated up just the week before, then karma turned right round to blight them because what goes around comes around.
But Bambo is just a man who has a studious way, peculiar only to himself, of doing things that he believes in. Against the Green Machine, he probably was already looking beyond this season and wanted to assess his club’s rising talent in a real game situation that was high profile as well (already, we have seen the exciting talent of one Grey Kufandada come to the fore!).
Virtually just about everything he applies himself onto is spiced up and leaves a taste of sorts in our mouths that we continue talking about it even long after he is gone.
And if anyone wanted to be let in on the tactician’s personality and how brutally frank he can get, then his previous WhatsApp status before the current one served that purpose really well: it simply read “I am boss”!
That’s the man Chunga for you and they just don’t call him Bambo for nothing!
Feedback:
Hie. Commenting on the topic “Spare a thought for Pasuwa”, I am of the opinion that Pasuwa just needs enough resources only [and] not just spy mission. Hazvibatsiri pasina adequate preparation. – Collins.
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