6 KEY WANDERERS PLAYERS MISS 1ST TRAINING

MANZINI – The backbone of Manzini Wanderers was noshow during the team’s first training session.

The team started training yesterday at their base camp, the Trade Fair Ground ahead of this year’s Bible Society Cup to be held next weekend at the Mavuso Sports Centre. This year’s edition will feature four teams as two, in Moneni Pirates and Mbabane Highlanders, were added. The previous two editions only featured Wanderers and city buddies in Manzini Sundowns.

The six key players, who were among those not present during the first training session for this tournament, included captain Lwazi ‘Shana’ Maziya, Sicelo ‘Junior’ Simelane, John Pako, Mfanzile ‘Fash’ Ndzimandze, first-choice goalkeeper Romanus Igidimba and trusted DRC forward Mike Dombo. Head coach Thabo ‘Koki’ Vilakati said it was their first day at training and they just wanted to assess the players’ conditioning. “We wanted to see if they are ok, if they are not sickly, like having caught flu as you can see that some are not yet here as they were probably held up somewhere,” said Vilakati.

Asked if the absence of other players meant they had cleared others to other teams, the esteemed coach responded to the negative. “We have not yet cleared any players; I expect all of them back. We did our technical report, made recommendations and we are still to meet and deliberate on it,” he said. Going forward as a team, the coach said he thought it was best for all stakeholders to remain professional. “If you are a coach, stick to being a coach, if you are a supporter stick on being a supporter and if you are fan, just be there to watch,” he said.
Vilakati said they lost valuable people due to interference as they are put unnecessary pressure.

He made an example of young upcoming coaches who give up easily due to unnecessary pressure yet they had potential to assist the team do well. “As Wanderers, let us rally behind the team holistically in every way we can support the team. Talking a lot of negative things about the team does not help but ruins its reputation and chases away potential sponsors,” he said.
The coach it was imperative to stick to your mandate and if one had a grievance must follow the proper channels to address the issue.

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