Grandstand: Can Fathy Find Glory at Power?

Mohamed Fathy arrives at Power Dynamos on a two-year deal to reign over a club desperate for big things.

Fathy comes to Arthur Davies Stadium armed with no honors from his first season in Zambian football from another ambitious but underachieving side Kabwe Warriors.

Moreover, Fathy will be remembered at Warriors for relinquishing the BP Top 8 crown the Railwaymen won under the late Arnold Mtonga in 2006-though he played no part at all in the controversial departure of striker Emmanuel Mayuka to Israel club Maccabi Tel Aviv.

All this happened before Warriors went into their seasonal implosion with their gunsights aimed on a top-two league finishing before going on to end their campaign in 6th position- a place below Fathy’s new club Power.

The cavalier Egyptian-born Fathy is somewhat lucky to be coming to a Power side that is exorcising itself from all things suspect from its recent past.

With the departure of Power assistants in Arthur Davies stalwart Linos Makwaza and ex-teammate Lawrence Mweemba, Fathy has a fairly blank sheet to start from.

Fathy has surely learnt from his first season at Warriors what damage ambitious assistant’s can do especially for a foreigner in a new land looking to enhance his CV.

Shockingly, the Egyptian has been handed a totally inexperienced number 2 in ex-Konkola Blades midfielder John Munkonje who has had no track record on the bench since retiring as a player at Power last season.
It is hard to imagine Munkonje at the helm in the absence of an ailing or committed Fathy this season.

Overlooked for the number 2 job is the fans favorite and ex-Power midfielder Alex Namazaba who left a frustrated man four seasons ago after he was snubbed as youth coach despite gaining a coaching badge.

Namazaba left Power in 2004 after retiring due to injury following 9 years at the club and has been working his way up the coaching ladder firstly as an assistant coach with an academy in Lusaka.

He later joined division 1 club National Assembly in 2007 who fired him in December together with coach Dean Mwiinde after failing to secure promotion to the top-flight.

Meanwhile, Fathy becomes the third foreign coach to take charge of Power over the last 8 years after little impact from the last two
imported trainers hired in the Kitwe giants quest for glory.

Patrick Walters had a brief stint between 2000 and 2001 and enjoyed a good rapport with his first deputy Dan Kabwe but not with his number 2 assistant Guston Mutobo.

Eddie May came in 2005 but clashed with Makwaza and Mweemba in the half a season he was briefly in charge.

However, Power have scored successes with their previous two foreign appointments in Briton’s Jim Boone in 1990 and 1991 during a period they won the league and defunct Caf Cup winners Cup.

Boone’s reign took a leaf of Bill Margery’s successful Cup run in the early 1980’s for Power.

And now Fathy, handed a fresh opportunity at Power, must now try to revive his and the 5-time league champions fortunes.

Meanwhile, Power have not won the league since 2000 despite an impressive cup spree under the late Ben Bamfuchile from 2001 to 2003 that saw him leave an indelible mark at Arthur Davies with five cup triumphs and a league runner-up finish despite a four-year love-hate relationship in his second coming with the clubs hard-to-please fans.

Fathy will be tested in Power’s first three games which to most of their followers is a barometer of a coach’s staying power on the bench at Arthur Davies.

The loquacious Fathy will also do well to tone down on the talk.

Not even the very quotable and media-friendly Bamfuchile escaped his bosses reprimand after repeated hits of his name making the news on the back page on all issues regarding Power.

Meanwhile, Fathy has wasted little time to utter what he thinks of his move from the provincial giant on the midlands to the rusting former crucible of Zambian football.

“This team (Power) is professional and they are ready to go to fight continental,” Fathy said about the prospect of playing in Africa in 2010.