23 Feb 2020

Jwaneng Galaxy chairperson, Njabulo Gilika has assured the team’s supporters that a new coach to replace the fired Miguel da Costa will be employed in about two weeks.

Speaking at a meeting with supporters to give them feedback on their concerns on Thursday, Gilika said they were in negotiations with the new coach, and that progress was at about 80 per cent.

“Unfortunately, I cannot disclose the name of the coach that we are negotiating with, but I can assure you that he will be here in time for our next home game,” he said.

Gilika also called for respect and mutual understanding between the club’s management and supporters to enable the two to iron out their issues amicably.

Gilika also advised supporters that even though they had a right to vent out their concerns, they should do so respectably to avoid tarnishing their club’s name. “Earlier this week we agreed that we will address you before the end of this week, and while we were still at it we were surprised to notice that you have been in full force in social media venting out, and to some extent even using obscene language,” he said.

Informing supporters why they fired Da Costa, club vice chairperson, Max Gaedie said Da Costa failed to meet most of the targets they had set him as well as failing to fulfill requirements such as submission of reports.

“He was supposed to submit to my office daily training plans as well as post-match analysis after every game, but those never reached my office, and he was well aware of what he was supposed to do,” he said.

He also said that Da Costa had been refusing to do the mandatory pre and post-match interviews as required by the premier league and sponsors.

Gaedie also said Da Costa’s lack of discipline had been of great concern to the club for a long time, adding that he was infamous for confronting match officials after games. “More often than not we had to apprehend him from confronting match officials, and even some of you supporters have been accusing us of failing to manage him. His relationship with you was hostile,” he said.

He said Da Costa was mandated to win the FA Cup among others, but was knocked out by BDF XI at the quarter-finals, then got second position in the last league campaign.

He said he was then knocked out at the preliminary stages in the CAF Confederations Cup by lowly ranked Bolton City from Mauritius. Concerning the league performance, Gaedie said since December until he was fired, the performance of the team was wanting. ENDS