Chunga for BlackRhinos?

rmer Warriors captain Norman Mapeza – riding on cloud nine after guiding an outfit of rookies to a convincing victory against Malawi on Sunday – is likely to be included in the substantive technical department, together with Sunday Chidzambwa. This paper has gathered that Chunga was recently approached by Black Rhinos at a time the army side desperately struggled to pick points, while on the other hand the coach’s world continued to crumble around him at Caps United due to successive poor results.
Informed sources told The Zimbabwean that Chunga was approached and offered a salary of $50 million per month by the army outfit, prompting him to announce his resignation at Caps United, only to face a hitch caused by the one-off payment of SAR150 000 he received from Caps United directors as his annual salary.
“We had approached Chunga because we desperately needed to start picking points and we offered him a monthly salary of $50 million,” an official at Black Rhinos said. “He had agreed but later came back to say he was tied to Caps United until the end of the year due to some financial issue, but would be willing to come and join us at the end of the year for the coming season.”
Caps United director of operations Farai Jere confirmed having paid Chunga’s salary for the whole year at the beginning of the season but declined to confirm it was in the South African currency or the amount.
A long period of tension, at times translated into serious violence, has ended at Caps United following the long overdue acceptance by both Chunga and the leadership that the former Warriors kingpin has been a huge flop, specializing more on picking single points as well as fighting sections of the supporters at the club. Caps have said they will soon announce the appointment of a former son.
Very outspoken, and at times foul-mouthed, Chunga has a bad record of leaving clubs under controversial circumstances and that include Black Rhinos, which he left in a huff a couple of years ago soon after attending a foreign training course at their expense.
Meanwhile, Mapeza has suddenly become the talk of town and honoured by many fans for having soothed a long period of pain when the Warriors struggled under Charles Mhlauri, who was fired after losing out on qualification for the 2008 African Nations finals in Ghana. Sources at the Zimbabwe Football Association said there are increasing prospects the association will fail to bring an expatriate and for that reason, Chidzambwa is likely to be appointed as head coach and assisted by Mapeza on a substantive basis. – Itai Dzamara