*Motlhala on the firing line
*Club in financial crisis
Extension Gunners Head Coach, Molefe Motlhala, was indefinitely suspended this week following a bad start to the league with three consecutive defeats.
Victory has been elusive for the once mighty Lobatse giants, and with a demoralised squad that has failed to score a single goal in the 270 minutes they have played, coach Molefe started to openly express his frustrations in a move that appears to have irked his employers.
Following their 3-0 thumping by Gaborone United, Molefe told Voice Sport in a post match interview that he was whipping an unwilling horse as the players were demoralised as they had not been paid their due salaries.
“Management keep making promises they fail to keep. The players reluctantly trained for about 25 minutes in preparation for this fixture. they didn’t want to play and I had to convince them,” he said.
While he says no reasons have been given regarding his suspension, Motlhala believes management were angered by his comments regarding their seemingly deficient commitment to motivate players.
Gunners lost their first game 2-0 against Township Rollers, followed by another 2-0 loss in their second game against Orapa United and the 3-0 defeat by Gaborone United on Wednesday.
Speaking to Voice Sport about his indefinite suspension, Motlhala said it was during training when the Chairman- Rapula Okaile, showed up and asked him to excuse them as he wanted to address the players.
He said after the meeting with the players he called him and told him not to participate in any club activities until further notice.
“They are supposed to address the main problem than to shift the blame. I foresee trouble. This is not just a suspension, they are probably still typing a letter of termination. I think what I told this publication after the GU game also contributed because I exposed management. They owe me a four months’ salary. They still owe me P26 000 which is a debt from when I was assistant Coach in 2018,” revealed Motlhala.
One of the players who preferred not to be named for fear of victimisation, said the chairman told them the team does not have money. He said he told them the team has been invited for a friendly on Saturday against Mochudi Centre Chiefs and that they will share the gate takings amongst themselves.
“A re re tla kgaogana madi a teng re reka dicombo (he said we will share the money and buy grocery combo). The situation is bad. Sometimes Coach Motlhala gives us money for taxi fare when none of management is there to assist us. We are tired of their empty promises,” he said.
When reached for comment, Okaile admitted that the club has a financial crisis.
He said they took a resolution as the committee to suspend Motlhala while they are looking for a permanent head coach.
“We were supposed to meet as a committee this evening to discuss the next step. We need a full time coach because Motlhala is here part time. You cannot be competing with professional teams that train twice a day and we train once because our coach is committed somewhere else. It is best to be blamed for taking a decision than not to act. It is not the issue of poor performance because fixtures did not favour us. We were playing against wealthy clubs consecutively,” said Okaile.
