How Mine FC court Caps trio

Sport
HOW MINE have set their eyes on grabbing three Caps United players, Tapiwa Khumbuyani, Tendai Samanja and Tawanda Nyamandwe to beef up their squad

HOW MINE Football Club have set their eyes on grabbing three Caps United players, defender Tapiwa Khumbuyani, midfielder Tendai Samanja and striker Tawanda Nyamandwe to beef up their squad for next year’s Orange Caf Confederation Cup.

Fortune Mbele Sports Reporter

An impeccable source told Southern Eye Sport that How Mine head coach Philani “Beefy” Ncube was in Harare last week and he brought the players to his bosses at the mine as negotiations progress.

The gold miners will represent the country in the continental competition after featuring in the final of the Mbada Diamonds Cup. They lost 0-3 to Highlanders, who are still serving a Caf ban.

They will host Chuoni FC of Zanzibar in the preliminary round first leg of the continental tournament next February before travelling to the island for the second leg.

“The three players were at the mine last week and are currently in talks with How Mine. Beefy was in Harare and he brought the three players to Bulawayo. Things have not been well at Caps United and with the lure of the Confederation Cup, the three could be joining How Mine,” the source said.

How Mine are also said to be targeting Young Warriors Under-20 and Aces Academy goalkeeper Donovan Bernard and keen on signing Botswana-based Mandlenkosi Sibanda.

Last week, Beefy who has previously said they will be bringing in 10 new players to bolster their squad said they were putting final touches to their squad as they seek to beat the Caf December 31 deadline. He, however, would not divulge the names of the players he is targeting saying that could scupper negotiations.

“We are still putting final touches to the squad and we are not going to release the names of the players that we will be registering for the tournament for now because that could jeopardise our negotiations with some players,” Beefy said.

Club chairman Mlondolozi Nkomo concurred, but said only a few changes would be made to the squad, that featured in the 2013 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season.

“Our squad has basically not changed, but with a few additions and we cannot announce the squad now as some players that we are talking to have not been cleared by their respective clubs,” he said.

With left-back Kumbulani Banda reportedly on his way to Highlanders, Khumbuyani is the likely replacement while the dreadlocked linkman Samanja could be replacing Menard Mupera who has been rumoured to be hanging his boots. Nyamandwe could be coming in to bolster the strikeforce of Simba Sithole, Nqobile Mpala and Simon Njeleza while Timothy January is said to be on Highlanders’ radar for the 2014 season.