Pressure, they say, makes diamonds. But, pressure, in football, can be the last straw on a tottering coach. With the MTN super league only three games old, there is already pressure heaping; insinuations that we are not far away from seeing the first managerial casualty.
Football rarely renders patience as a virtue. Patience can sometimes be blind faith that prowls a team into a cul-de-sac. Zanaco’s procrastination in sacking Numba when results clamored for his dismissal had consequences, and when the call was made, eventually, it was a tad late.
“That which is tottering one should also push,” says Nietzsche, but who are the few teetering on the brink, completely cognizant that another bad performance can trigger a club statement:
CHRIS KAUNDA
Almost had a flawless remainder of last season and that win in Egypt against Pyramids helped ensconce his grip on the Zanaco job. But for all his prowess last season since he took over from Numba, it is his colorless away form and the lack of progress made this season that makes him a candidate for the sack.
Zanaco’s heavy investment in the squad clamors for a shot at the title, but if the bankers show no improvement in the next couple of games, the former Nkwazi man will be the odd one out.
MANFRED CHABINGA
Mbombo’s terrific late goal against Warriors plus the international break has somehow shushed the almost unceasing scrutiny of the 55-year-old. His demeanor post the Warriors game was that of a man heaved of a huge burden. But, Chabinga, though bailed out by a late goal in Kabwe, is still a man that carries the burden of proof.
George “Chicken” Lwandamina has already been tipped to retain an interest in the Nkana job and there is a belief that another uninspiring performance akin to the one against Forest Rangers and Lumwana Radiants could be Chabinga’s swansong to his Nkana career.
STEPHEN MWANSA
For “Chingalika” the ambition is to beat the drop and maintain their spot in the super league come next season. But a week 1 defeat against fellow relegation candidates Prison Leopards and a draw against Indeni both at home do presage the mammoth task ahead.
Mwansa has a jerry-built squad at his disposal and well aware of the Augean task ahead but if results, especially at home, become hard to come by, he may likely be sacrificed.
DABID CHILUFYA
They arguably have the best squad of the three promoted, but Indeni, despite a salient preseason that saw them bag the big six tournament trophy, They have found results in the league hard to come by.
Chilufya knows the “oil men” are a team in need of an upswing turn inform if his tenure is not to be ephemeral.
The league is inchoate, the landscape liable to change. But pressure is mounting. The greenlight for fans return to stadia in the next round of fixtures could prove decisive on the futures of the coaches struggling to cut the mustard.
