GU SEE RED, BLUES ROLL ON

It never rains but pours at Gaborone United. Actually, the past seven days have not borne any good news at the club.

Friday was particularly not a great day for anyone to be the club’s supporter as both Township Rollers and Mochudi Centre Chiefs dented their remaining pride in a matter of hours.

No sooner had The Reds’ faithful been left with an egg on the face regarding Ofentse Nato’s change of heart than they were slapped 2-0 by Chiefs some hours later.

With the club’s management playing hide and seek with the media on emerging issues at the club, it has not been established why Nato, their loyal servant of many years, reneged on signing for the club at the last minute after he had been reported to be on the verge of signing.

Nato on Friday signed for Rollers in what was seen as a shock move, and emerging news is that United were still fighting internally over whether to sign him or not when Rollers came up with a concrete offer. Nato reportedly opted for a more serious Rollers as the argument for and against signing him at United continued.

One group felt that while Nato was their loyal servant, there was no justification to sign him while the club no longer had anything to fight for this season. The party that was opposing the signing of Nato reasoned that already they were out of league contention and the Mascom Top 8. Nato’s Indian side Atletico de Kolkata has gone for recess until September this year, but have agreed to have the player getting some game time while in Botswana.

Ahead of his signing for Rollers, his agent had reportedly been toying with the plan to take the player to France. Besides the procrastination at United, sources say Rollers dangled a mouthwatering carrot before the former Bidvest Wits star, an offer he found difficult to resist.  

Now it means that in a space of two weeks, Rollers have signed two big names - Nato and their former Zimbabwean prolific forward Terrence Mandaza. The duo is expected to feature in Rollers’ Mascom Top 8 Semi-Finals in Francistown against Chiefs.

Township Rollers president Dick Gabanakgosi confirmed to Sun Sports that indeed his club was working around the clock to finalise paper work for the duo. “We are expecting to start work on Mandaza’s work permit this Wednesday and by Friday we will be in a good position to know when he will feature.

As for Nato, we are finalising his paper work too”, Gabanakgosi said.Meanwhile, United are facing the wrath of CAF after pulling out of the CAF Confederation’s Cup at the eleventh hour.

United said they would need about P500 000 for their planned Zanzibar trip alone but did not have enough money to make the trip possible. They were supposed to play Tanzania’s Jeshi La Kujenga Ucumi FC.