Gunners court former chairman

CHIPPA LEGODIMO
Correspondent | Friday July 2, 2010 00:00

 

Ismael has confirmed that Gunners have approached him to come on board and they are in negotiations. He said the emissary who delivered the message is Gunners' corporate affairs manager, Kitso Dlamini. 'I met with Kitso on several occasions and in our final meeting, I promised him that I would consider the idea after some thought.

It is not an easy decision to make because during those years when me and Rashid Chopdat were at the helm, we were still young and did not have so many commitments but it is different now. I like the team but I still have to consider how I should help, whether it would be only as a sponsor or as something else,' Ismael said.

'But I miss the good old days when Gunners used to win every trophy on offer while I was guiding them. I would want to see a repeat of that history but now things are different. I have so many other things to attend to,' he said.

Ismael added that financial challenges have derailed the club's progress. 'I trust the current Gunners' management. But without money, they cannot take the team to the same dizzy heights. They need the resources to make the team great again,' Ismael said. Dlamini said they believe Ismael is the right person to help the club become competitive.  'I respect the man for his business acumen and the fact that he has been involved with the team before and made it successful. He knows the culture of the team and although he has not been involved in a long time, he is still a fan of Gunners,' Dlamini said. He explained that they had approached Gunners' sponsors, Kims Auto, and  Steve Rima of O3 to form a board of trustees.

'We have spoken to Charity and Luckson Chidoda of Kims Auto as well as Pongo Pule of Pule Mortuary whom we want to come to the table with Ismael and try to find a model to be used to change the team into a corporate entity,' he said. Dlamini said they are expecting feed back from the group in the third quarter of the new season.

'The idea of bringing back Ismael has always been brought up at our Annual General Meetings (AGM) and it was crucial that we start negotiating with him (Ismael) before our next AGM in July,' he said.  Dlamini said that all the seven Gunners' players whose contracts ended have signed deals and committed their future to the club. He noted that the only player set to leave is defender Emmanuel Nlu who has indicated his desire to join ECCO City Greens. He said that they are confident of retaining coach Daniel 'Chico' Nare although there have been reports that he would be leaving the team in the new season.  'Chico's contract expires at the end of July and we have no reason to suspect that he does not want to stay with us,' Dlamini said.