Author: BENJAMIN BEN
AfricaPress-Tanzania: Young Africans are said to be at crossroads with veteran defenders Kelvin Yondani and Juma Abdul as the two are reported to be reluctant to adhere to the new contract terms.
According to the reliable sources, the duo have turned down the demand from the club to have them in the squad without paying them signing fee.
“Until now, we have not reached an agreement as they want us to continue serving the club for the next season and receive the same monthly salary without paying us signing fees which is not fair at all otherwise, we will go separate ways,” Abdul said.
In another development, the club has picked August 10th as the date to start pre-season ahead of the 2020/21 top flight league season early next month.
The Jangwani Street based club are currently on the players signing spree as they want to rebuild the competitive squad capable to bring impact next term of the league.
Naming the date to start the preseason was the club’s kit and merchandise suppliers GSM’S Investment Director Hersi Said who pointed out that they are now in the final stages to sign new players.
“After the last season, the technical section of the club which is tasked to follow the progress of players provided its report on the performance of each player. “After that, we had to identify the weakness of the team and find suitable replacement of players which is ongoing now,” he said.
He however disclosed that getting foreign based players is a bit hard now since most countries are yet to re-open their airspace but he said they are closely monitoring their targeted players from outside the nation.
“Most countries are expected to finish lockdowns from August 15th hence it will be a good opportunity for us to accomplish the foreign signings,” he said.
Commenting about the new man to be in charge of the team as Head Coach, Hersi disclosed that they will soon announce the right candidate to resume the post.
“We will also unveil the entire technical bench members since even the Assistant Coach Boniface Mkwasa is no longer there as his contract expired so the technical bench is another area we are focusing on a lot,” he said.
Again, Hersi revealed that the club transformation procedures with La Liga are moving well such that they are in the third month of the first phase which contains four months.
“As of now, they are knowing much about us through data collection and after that, the next phase will be data analysis while the third part will be recommendations,” he said.
Coastal Union who has lost their key defender, Bakari Mwamnyeto in this transfer said they are not concerned at all despite the scramble for players at the club saying they will polish other stars to fill the void.
Together with Mwamnyeto who has been snatched by Young Africans, the Tanga based club has lost three key players who have been signed by other top flight league teams.
But, speaking yesterday, the club’s chairman Stephen Mguto said the ongoing rush for players at his club means that there is something potential in the squad.
“As you know, this is the normal procedure in football whereby some players are snatched by other teams and for us, we are proud because it gives us confidence that last season, we did a great job to create competitive players,” he said.
He added that despite the departure of some players, they will be in a better position to create another crop of players to do wonders as well.
“We initially had 30 players in the squad but now, we have 27 players as such, those who were deprived a chance to play due to the fact that a team is composed of only 11 players, they will now get a chance to play,” said he.
Moreover, the chairman lamented that usually, it becomes difficult for a coach to change a winning team unless if some of the players in the squad are injured hence that is why the other category of players are not usually seen but are also good.
“People have not seen all our players and you will be surprised to find out that those who will fill the left voids will be better than their departed colleagues,” he said.
However, the departure of the team’s skipper and solid defender Mwamnyeto was among the notable transfer this season.
Even though his signing fee was not disclosed, it is believed that Mwamnyeto deal is so far the most expensive for the completed domestic transfers.
