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Charles Mhlauri: some things never change
By
Mduduzi Mathuthu
Editor
I HAD an opportunity
to spend some time with my old friend, Charles Mhlauri, recently.
We reminisced on a lot of things, our discussion ranging from cars, politics (yes, politics) and inevitably football.
One thing I have always known about Mhlauri is that he has a strong sense of 'right', and once he is convinced that his actions are 'right', he will marshal all the might of language to defend his position.
After the Nigerian disaster at the weekend, which saw the Warriors being ripped apart by the Super Eagles, there is a lot of anger and frustration among soccer fans….and some have suggested he should be fired.
Knowing Mhlauri, he is likely to take this criticism in his stride. For him, a defeat is a defeat, whatever the margin. It would have provided him no comfort or relief to have lost 2-0 or 3-1. It’s still a defeat.
One quality that sets Mhlauri apart from all other premiership coaches is a philosophical streak of arrogance to his coaching techniques.
As much as he can take criticism, he remains firmly convinced in the “rightness” of his own actions and choices. For every criticism you throw at him, he has a ready justification for his actions, which is not to say he is unreceptive to new ideas.
During our discussion, I asked if there was any substance to allegations of bias in his team selection. Some Zimbabwean newspapers have certainly suggested the 36-year-old coach draws rather too excessively from his pool of players at Caps United.
“That particular criticism is unmerited,” he told me.
“For me, it’s a simple question of whether you hunt with your neighbour’s dogs or your own. Imagine, after taking your neighbour’s dogs, and you are in the middle of the hunt and they suddenly don’t respond to your orders,” says the dreadlocked coach as he warms up to his theme.
“Do you go back to your neighbour and say his dogs refused to take your instructions? That’s a choice I would not take because every hunter should understand that you are best served by your dogs.”
I then suggested to him that his dogs might not necessarily be the best at the business. We both laughed. Point taken, I quietly assumed.
Behind that corded response, I was left with no doubt that Mhlauri is still driven by the same convictions that led him to relative success at AmaZulu and Masvingo United before he hit the big time with Caps United.
Where other coaches have found it difficult to swim against some of the advocacy reporting by some Zimbabwean journalists, Mhlauri has been happy to take them head on….and as long as the results have been going his way, he has continually emerged as the winner.
Watch the indignation that greeted Mhlauri’s announcement that he wants a foreigner to deputise him!
You should have read some of the ranting of the ‘Moses Chunga brigade’ which accused Mhlauri of treachery when he refused to condemn Zifa for relieving his assistant of his duties after some ugly rows.
That’s Charles Mhlauri in a nutshell. Not really controversial, but not always far from it!
I was also eager to find out from him what he thought were the causes of the non-progression of Zimbabwean football beyond taking comfort in being also-rans at the Africa Nations Cup Finals.
“A good measure of our progress,” he said, “is to look at how many players in the national team squad are playing in the world’s top leagues. In all seriousness, only (Benjani) Mwaruwari (Auxerre, France) is playing for a top team in a top European league.
“We should always match our ambition with the quality of players that we have, and if you look at Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, we really don’t compare.”
But why, I asked, were we failing to get more players in the European and South American leagues because on the surface, we have some exciting youngsters who should at best make the grade and at worst be invited for trials.
It was all technical, Mhlauri told me.
“Call any European coach and say you have a good player that you want to sell him. Before the coach can even take the player on trial, the first questions he will ask you are: ‘What’s the player’s height and what’s his weight?’
“Football has become physical in Europe and there is now an overriding emphasis on fitness. There is an unwritten rule that a player must weigh at least 75kg and be 6ft tall.
“If a player doesn’t meet that criteria, then he has to be a special talent….he must compensate the lack of the necessary physical features with ability on the ball.
“We sold Brian Badza to a Belgian club, and there were no trials. It was the same with Cephas Chimedza….once I had given them his height and weight, and told them that he was good, he was taken.”
This is not idle talk from Mhlauri who counts former Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld among his friends and has trained as coach in Hungary and Germany.
Mhlauri cited the case of Highlanders’ Honour Gombami, recently on trials with English First Division (Nationwide) side Chesterfield.
“I like Gombami as a player, and he has a lot of potential. However, his physical stature will always prove his main undoing. Gombami’s situation epitomises the limitations of our game compared to the West Africans who are more successful. It’s not just a coincidence.”
On that note, it was time for a second round of drinks. I express that old moan at his refusal to take any alcohol. But just like his arrogance when faced with his critics, his distaste for all things alcoholic is undiminished.
As Tupac once said,
some things never change!
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