Mmegi

Tlou mends Young Stars heartbreak

New environment: Tlou joined Blue Diamonds at the start of the season. PIC: KENNEDY RAMOKONE
New environment: Tlou joined Blue Diamonds at the start of the season. PIC: KENNEDY RAMOKONE

In a sudden and shocking move, head coach Andrew Tlou left Jwaneng Young Stars at the beginning of last season as the club opted to sell its Premier League status.

Tlou had guided the team to the best season in the club’s history as they, for the first time, secured a Premier League spot after a convincing First Division South League campaign. Against the odds, Young Stars pipped many household names including, Extension Gunners, Notwane, and Mochudi Centre Chiefs to the automatic promotional spot. But Tlou and Young Stars' celebrations were cut short as the club's management decided to sell the Premier League status to Gunners. “The best season of my life, we won the season convincingly with Young Stars and promoted Young Stars to the Premier League, and at the end of the season, we parted ways,” Tlou remembers. He said that the club did not inform him about the decision to sell the status as he watched their season-long hard work go to waste. “When you are first brought into the team, you sit down on certain terms and conditions, how things will unfold at the end of the season, and how things would go during the season. So at the end of the season, after we won the league with all that work, with the knowledge that we were going to the Premier League, all of a sudden the sponsors said they did not have enough finances to sustain the team in the Premier League,” he said. “So, I had no choice but to leave because I had thought we were going to the Premier League and then we were left to stay in the First Division and they sold the status to Gunners, and surprisingly it was sold without my knowledge, without any discussion with me. This was the status that was won by myself, so it was a big disappointment but I understood. When the investors say they could not afford it, what choice do you have, so I had to leave,” Tlou said

. 'Druza' as he is affectionately called in football circles, returned to one of his former teams, Blue Diamonds. He had a stint with the club in 2021 and won the Southern Regional Football Association (SORFA) league and got the team promoted to the First Division South League. It was a regression from gaining Premier League qualification to the third-tier league, SORFA. Part of Tlou's decision was influenced by proving a point. “Some people believed that when I won the league with Young Stars it was because I was privileged and I had (quality) players and had everything to work with. So I wanted to show that I can work in any environment whether the team is privileged or not. Whether the team is well-resourced or not, I can work with that. So Blue Diamonds has nothing, absolutely nothing and I am working hard with the little players we have to achieve the unthinkable,” Tlou said.

Editor's Comment
Depression is real; let's take care of our mental health

It is not uncommon in this part of the world for parents to actually punish their children when they show signs of depression associating it with issues of indiscipline, and as a result, the poor child will be lashed or given some kind of punishment. We have had many suicide cases in the country and sadly some of the cases included children and young adults. We need to start looking into issues of mental health with the seriousness it...

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