Nare: The buffalo to lead Wanderers’ charge
PALAPYE: New Morupule Wanderers coach, Daniel ‘Chico’ Nare is enthusiastic about turning around the fortunes of the Palapye-based club after penning a two-year deal this week.
Nare’s mandate is to rebuild a club that made its BTC Premiership debut last season. His targets, as spelt by the club, are to achieve a topeight finish in his first season and a top-four finish in the second.
Despite a poorly assembled squad that was nearly relegated last season, Nare believes Wanderers, as a mining team should compete in the bracket where its compatriots, Orapa United and Jwaneng Galaxy compete.
He argues, the coronavirus (COVID-19) delays are a blessing in disguise, as this would give him time to build a competitive side and impose his style of play.
Bafana Ba Magala, as the Palapyebased club is affectionately known, has confirmed the release of seven players. Nare said he had already identified replacements for the outgoing contingent.
“As coaches, we are judged by results. I am going to have to hit the ground running. I am lucky I have a bit of time due to the COVID-19 situation that I would use to assemble a team that should get the results,” he said.
“We should maintain the status quo first, and then find stability before we ultimately go for honours. There is no reason why Morupule (Wanderers) should not be competing with other mining town teams,” he added with confidence.
He said the experienced Tebogo Sesome would be joining his new troops at Wanderers on loan from Jwaneng Galaxy. He reckons the Se- some factor and the presence of Leteng
Legopelo was enough to be the base of a strong side.
“The important thing is to get the right spine for the team and then improve some players. Then we should have a good balance of youth and experience that should take us from the situation of the past season.”
Nare added he had identified four players aged between 17 and 24 years from Mahalapye who were going to be his first acquisitions at Wanderers.
His idea of bringing in the youthful players resonates with the transition of the club as defined by club chairperson, Nelson ‘Manelo’ Kgosipheko.
Kgosipheko said they were in a rebuilding phase following a poor start last season. He said they arrived in the top league without a distinct plan and reckoned they were lucky to escape relegation.
The chairperson said Nare was the right man after a “great job with mostly low budget clubs”. He highlighted that Nare excelled at Miscellaneous, Security Systems and at Orapa United, to mention a few.
“He made some of these clubs very competitive with a very tight budget. He has vast experience with many local clubs hence we believe we have got ourselves a good catch,” he said.
“No one would have thought Systems would be that tough at the beginning of last season and before his move to Orapa, he transformed
Miscellaneous into a very strong side.”
Kgosipheko confirmed they had released seven players who are mostly aged, and out of contract amongst them Toy Moroka, Kelapile Terata, Master Masitara and Mpoeleng Mpoeleng.
He said the parting was mutual and did not come as a surprise to the players, as it was discussed at the beginning of the season. He said they would be leaving the recruitment drive to their new coach.
“We are yet to meet to discuss everything in detail, but we have given him our guidelines and expectations. We want to build a culture with a young team that would be here for at least four to five seasons,” he said.
Out of the technical, Kgosipheko said the club has been busy developing a strategy and that they had engaged a renowned consultancy company to iron it out.
He said key in the strategy is to transform the club into a business entity as per the advice of the Botswana Football Association. And other key areas include supporter recruitment drive and stakeholder engagement. He said the sponsor had promised to walk with the club until it was self-sustainable.
“With the new strategy, the plan is to prepare a team that would standalone. We want the community of Palapye and the local businesses to be forefront runners of this club.”
Meanwhile, the pandemic halted the wheels of construction of the Morupule Wanderers mini-stadium. Kgosipheko, however, confirmed the project still stands and would resume once the situation subsides.