Silver Strikers have a huge task on their hands to overcome the current storm, which appears to be getting stronger by each season.
The Central Bankers pride themselves on their team’s ability to win major trophies, but Saturday’s Castel Challenge Cup final loss to FCB Nyasa Big Bullets means they have now gone two seasons in a row without a piece of silverware.
Since the formation of the club, the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) sponsored team has never gone two seasons without a trophy, and this is something new to everyone associated with the brand which has everything at their disposal to become a power house.
When they hired Pieter De Jongh at the start of 2023, he vowed to end Bullets’ dominance, and he was quoted by the media soon after his arrival in Malawi saying “I am not afraid of Bullets” during his unveiling.
Well, after ten games in charge, he seemed to have indeed come to end Bullets’ dominance, but his fall from grace saw his charges failing to tame Kalisto Pasuwa’s charges who, at some point, were running away with the league.
On cups, the Bankers were knocked out of the FDH Bank Cup by Moyale Barracks and failed to beat Mafco in the semis of the Airtel Top 8 Cup despite creating lots of goal scoring chances.
The only last opportunity for them was winning the Castel Challenge Cup on Saturday. But they were outplayed in all the departments against Bullets who were firing from all cylinders.
In all honesty, the Area 47 based side was lucky to survive the normal time as they were made to run by their opponents who, had it been they were sharp in front, would have buried them alive in the first half.
This season, the Bankers fought very hard to win something. They gave Bullets a tough run in the league, but their failure to beat Dedza Dynamos, Extreme FC, Civil Service United, and Karonga United saw them losing ground in the title race even though they took it to the final day of the season.
De Jongh’s failure to beat Bullets on Saturday sparked more rage among the fans, who felt enough was enough even though the Dutchman has another year left in his contract.
The ‘champ’, as fondly known, has, in several of his press conferences, blamed the absence of Chimwemwe Idana as one of the many reasons why he failed to win the Super League.
But the question is: Was Idana not part of the team that has lost both the Airtel Top 8 Cup and the Castel Cup? Can a team win a competition by relying on a single player?
The sentiments from De Jongh clearly indicate how disjointed the team is, and the current storm could take years to quieten as the senior management will likely fire the coach and bring in another one.
Rumors have it that Peter Mponda, former assistant coach to Pasuwa, is on the verge of replacing the tough spoken Dutchman who, in his post-match interviews, vowed to stay on as the coach for the Bankers.
For a team with a sound sponsorship ending without anything to show is a bad sign of leadership at the top. Much as all the blame goes to the coach whenever a team fails to achieve anything, the Board at Silver has also contributed to the current woes.
However, the coming in for Patrick Chimimba as the new CEO may be will give a glimpse of hope to all the fans who deserve more than what is being given to them by the team.
Apart from Idana, the team is full of average players, and Chimimba should try to sign the right players in order to challenge Bullets.
As it is, no team in Malawi is ready to end Bullets’ dominance. The team is organized, has a well-run management, has structures that have seen several Reserves players promoted to the main team to maintain the winning culture amongst others.
Painful as it is, a season that was promised to be a year of harvest has gone wayward for the Bankers. Just like Mighty Mukuru Wanderers, they continue wandering in the wilderness as Bullets continues to dominate Malawian football
