Young Strikera' manager denies firing senior player

CHIPPA LEGODIMO
Correspondent | Friday February 11, 2011 00:00

Speaking to Mmegi Sport, Lesego says he was shocked on Tuesday this week when Team Manager Jacob Tshube called him aside and told him he was no longer welcome at the club and ordered him to stop training instantly.

While Tshube has distanced himself from the latest developments, Lesego insists: 'Tshube was with the Secretary and his assistant when he told me that they no longer needed me in their team,' he says.

'I was shocked. When I asked why, he (Tshube) told me that I was a bad influence on the other players and that I would make them boycott training.'  Lesego says because he is a senior player, younger players had been asking him why Dipatane had not returned to the team since the beginning of the year.

He initially treated the inquiries lightly, but he eventually reached a stage where he also felt somebody needed to set the record straight regarding the absence of the coach, he says. His courage in confronting the management of the team about the issue was apparently regarded as an offence, he notes.

'We just saw the team owner, Albert Tema's son Godfrey Tema, training the team but no one said anything about whether 'Killer' would be returning,' Lesego says.

'Mind you, we were not even trying to tell management that it was wrong to fire 'Killer' or anything like that. We just felt that as players, we deserved to know what was happening.'

Lesego says the unexplained absence of the coach was affecting morale because it was not the first time for the team to be in such a situation. When former coach, Botshelo 'Observer' Pelokgosi, left to join Ramotswa side, Killer Giants, the players only heard in the grapevine about it, he says.

But Tshube denies ever telling the player to stop training with the team. 'I know nothing about him being fired from the team,' he says. 'That is an issue between you and him; that is why he came to you.' He would not comment on Dipatane's fate or the coaching post. Sitting precariously at position 12 with only 10 points, prospects of relegation are serious for Young Strikers, and any internal wrangling would not help matters in any way.