By Mikia Kalati
THE Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) is faced with a tough decision of announcing replacements to former Likuena coaching pair of Leslie Notši and Lehlohonolo Thotanayana who recently joined South African first division side, United FC.
There are a lot of candidates that have been identified as possible replacements to take over the hot seat.
However, the truth of the matter is that only a few coaches in the country could make the cut owing to the inherent shortage of resources and facilities.
Problems facing football in the Mountain Kingdom have been well documented over the years and this means that unlike in other countries, we need somebody with a big heart who is prepared to work under very messy and stressful circumstances.
I have talked to a few experienced football administrators and suggest that maybe a combination of Motlatsi Shale and Motheo Mohapi is what Likuena needs at this stage.
Mohapi, who has worked with Likuena before as a caretaker coach, is a no-nonsense mentor who can be very aggressive yet highly experienced.
He played for a very successful LDF side winning a number of trophies before becoming a coach.
He also played for the national team.
Shale is also a former Lesotho international. He too had a successful career playing for the likes of Matlama and Likhopo and had a brief spell with Free State giants, Bloemfontein Celtic.
He started his coaching career at Likhopo before joining hitherto unbeaten Bantu at the start of the season and looks set to lead the Mafeteng based team to their first ever league title.
Shale is a modern coach and his philosophy seems to be working well for players that we have in the country.
Lioli coach, Mosholu “Shoes’ Mokhothu, has also had a very successful career with the likes of Lioli and LCS over the years and is among the names that have been raised to take over at Likuena.
Another pair that I feel deserves a place in the Likuena technical team are former Likuena captains Lehlohonolo Seema and Tšepo Hlojeng.
Both have recently launched their coaching career. Hlojeng is at the helm of his home team Mphatlalatsane while Seema has assumed the role of assistant coach at his former club, Bloemfontein Celtic.
They are both blessed with good leadership qualities and are honest persons who live for the beautiful game though I doubt they would be ready to commit to the Likuena coaching job at the moment.
Yes, they maybe inexperienced to take over a big responsibility of being national team coaches. But big countries such as Brazil and Holland have handed their former stars like Dunga and Marco Van Basten this big responsibility despite their little coaching experience and I do not see why we also cannot do it, especially with these duo that commands so much respect within the football fraternity.
As for bringing a foreign coach, I feel that we are not ready for such a move as it turned out to be a recipe for disaster like it happened a few years ago with Tony Hey and Serbian, Zavisa Milosavljevic.
Our country still lacks behind in terms of resources and facilities to compete with the rest of the continent therefore it would be a waste of money to rope in an international coach.
At this stage, the position can only suit local coaches.
