BY FORTUNE MBELE
Chicken Inn coach Joey Antipas revealed at the weekend that the club was forced to let go of striker Clive Augusto, who had become unsettled at the club.
According to a SuperSport report yesterday afternoon, Maritzburg signed Augusto on a three-year deal with an option to extend by another two years.
Championship-chasing Chicken Inn begin life without their talisman who they have finally released to join the South African Absa Premier Soccer League side.
The Chicken Inn leadership had previously indicated the free-scoring former Ngezi Platinum Stars striker was not up for sale this season.
However, the hitman who has scored 14 goals in 17 games, packed his bags to move to South Africa leaving Antipas a devastated man as his side continues to sing the blues without a win after three games.
Augusto had only spent eight months with the GameCocks, scoring in his last game when they lost to ZPC Kariba at Nyamhunga Stadium.
“It’s like a big setback, but we just have to move on. Life goes on without him. We have to learn to play without him,” Antipas said, adding that too many people were involving themselves in Augusto’s affair and the player had begun to show signs of anxiety and the best thing was to let him go.
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“When a lot of people are involved in it and the player is a bit unsettled, it’s better for him to move on because he won’t give you 100% performance. I won’t stop a player from moving. It’s good for a player to go and better himself, his life and his family,” said a visibly worried Antipas after the weekend draw.
He made a number of changes to the team on Saturday, bringing new signing Benedict Sithole who joined Chicken Inn from Zifa Central Region Division One side Dulivhadzimu, while Pride Zendera started in goals ahead of Donovan Bernard.
Antipas noted some loss of confidence among his players.
“It looks like we have just lost some confidence. The team is not playing with confidence, which plays a big part in a game of football. The performance today was just not good enough. We just have to dust ourselves, pick ourselves up and try and do some positive stuff. It’s worrying because we are not playing well. We are not ourselves. It’s lack of confidence in the boys and we have to try and instill that back,” Antipas said.
The GameCocks’ next assignment is against Dynamos in Harare.
