2014/15 National First Division Fixtures Draw

NFD outfit Black Leopards have an important couple of weeks ahead as they finalise both their playing staff and their new head coach for next season.

The Limpopo team narrowly missed out on promotion last season, finishing in second position on the NFD standings before ending as runners-up to Polokwane City in the play-offs.

Lidoda Duvha will not sit around licking their wounds, but instead are now hoping to build on the experience gained last season, and take some valuable lessons into the 2014/ 2015 campaign.

“We need to hit the ground running,” Leopards spokesman Berry Ramunenyiwa said. “Last season we had a very sluggish start and we dropped 16 points early on. If we could have taken at least eight of those points, who knows where we could have been at the end of the season.”

However, for the club’s plans to get under way, their priority now lies in finding a new head coach, after Kosta Papic departed for Chippa United. While former Leopards and Chippa coach Vladislav Heric has been linked with a return to the Limpopo team, Ramunenyiwa says the club are still looking at various possibilities.

“The chairman has been away, and when he gets back this week, we are likely to soon announce the new head coach. We have had a lot of applications for the job, including applicants from around the world.

“I think this shows the high regard that people from outside the country have for South African soccer. So we have some good options available to us, and we hope to make a decision soon so that the new coach can begin preparing for the new season,” he said.

While the club finalise their new head coach, the players are being put through their pre-season workout by Solly Luvhengo (the former Under-20 national team coach), as well as Joel Masutha, both of whom are new additions to the technical team.

In terms of playing personnel, it would appear likely that striker David Zulu could be on his way out of the club (Chippa being his possible destination), after Ramunenyiwa explained that the marksman’s contract with Leopards has expired.

Midfielder Edgar Manaka, who has been linked to several PSL clubs, is however still at the club and has been taking part in pre-season training with his team-mates.

Ramunenyiwa says player movements in and out will be confirmed in the coming weeks: “The priority is to get the new coach appointed, so he can advise us on which of the players he wants to keep, and which players he would like to try and bring in. We aim to keep as many of our players from last season as possible, and a lot of them are still contracted to us.

“Of course we could like to try and keep our top players. But we are also not a club that stands in the way of a player if he feels he needs to move on to progress in his career. If the proper channels are used, then we are always open to talking,” he said.