Fungai Muderere, Zimpapers Sports Hub AS the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League hits the halfway mark, a storm has swept through technical benches, leaving seven head coaches without jobs. What’s behind this brutal purge? So far, the axe has fallen on Luke Masomere (Triangle United), Lloyd Chitembwe (CAPS United), Lloyd Chigowe (Dynamos), Saul Chaminuka (Bikita Minerals), Jairos Tapera (Manica Diamonds), Taurai Mangwiro (Greenfuel) and Kelvin Kaindu (Highlanders). This represents a staggering 38 percent of the league’s coaches, nearly half the field, dismissed before round two, sparking intense debate across Zimbabwe’s football landscape. It underscores the reality that while coaching may be rewarding in certain aspects, it is also a volatile profession marked by high expectations, public scrutiny and little margin for error. In elite football, job security is a myth. Coaches constantly operate under pressure to deliver results in a highly competitive, unpredictable and fast-moving environment, often with limited resources or structural support. “Stress has and will always be an integral part of elite sport, and key features of coaching at this level are unrealistic performance demands and job insecurity,” reads a study titled Elite Football Coaches’ Experiences and Sense Making About Being Fired: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A local sports scientist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “This is especially relevant for bigger team sports such as football, which also involve thousands of sponsors. Indeed, high performance coaching in general is a profession that is vulnerable to mental health problems and in particular, football.” Numerous studies have analysed coaching dismissals, often from a results-based lens, exploring whether firing a coach improves performance. The findings remain inconclusive. While some teams experience short term lifts, others show no improvement in wins or goals scored. Some researchers argue that frequent dismissals stem more from public justification than performance, clubs trying to appease fans or sponsors when expectations aren’t met. And those expectations? Often sky high. Being a head coach in the PSL today is like walking a tightrope over a minefield, one misstep and you’re gone. But are coaches given enough to succeed? Consider Highlanders. The club failed to invest in player recruitment before the 2024 season. Pre-season was anything but ideal. Yet the board, despite these limitations, parted ways with their Zambian coach Kelvin Kaindu after just a few months. It’s baffling. Kaindu, who turned Highlanders into genuine contenders in 2012 and 2013, was again shown the door in 2024. What changed? Did he suddenly forget how to coach? Or was he again the fall guy for deeper institutional failings? In 2013, it was politics. In 2025, the reasons remain murky. Only time will tell. The coaching carousel in Zimbabwe is nothing new. Past seasons have seen teams like Ngezi Platinum Stars, Dynamos, Bulawayo City, and Bulawayo Chiefs part ways with big names, Benjani Mwaruwari, Bongani Mafu, Thulani Sibanda, Genesis “Kaka” Mangombe, Mandla “Lulu” Mpofu, Darlington Dodo, Bekithemba “Super” Ndlovu, Herbert Maruwa and Tonderayi Ndiraya among them. Their departures speak to a recurring theme in football management: “An insecure job, working under unprofessional administration, micro-politics in the organisation, unrealistic and shifting expectations, emotional toll.” One South African coach once summed it up perfectly: “You’re expected to make orange juice out of lemons.” As the 2025 PSL season continues, club boards must ask themselves tough questions: Are they building teams with vision, patience, and long-term planning, or simply hiring coaches as scapegoats for deeper structural issues? In truth, Zimbabwean football’s coaching instability is less about tactics and more about trust, or the lack thereof. And unless that changes, the revolving door at the dugout will keep spinning. @FungaiMuderere