Exit demon hits Mkude, Morrison

SQUAD trimming exercise continues heralded by Simba partying ways with Jonas Mkude, who served the club for 13 years.

Also heralded the exercise is Erasto Nyoni as the exercise is also reportedly at their traditional rivals, Young Africans.

After releasing Ghanaian Bernard Morrison, Yanga however, denounced claims that their Congolese full-back, Joyce Lomalisa is on the brink of leaving the Premier League champions.

The Jangwani-based street club announced parting ways with Morrison early yesterday making him the third player to be shown an exit door by the champions ahead of next season.

This comes after the club released Dickson Ambundo and Tuisila Kisinda as part of the club’s ongoing exercise of reshaping the squad ahead of the pre-season preps and next season assignments.

In the ongoing reshaping of the team as per the technical bench report directives, there have been prevailing gossip on the future of players such as Lomalisa, Fiston  Mayele, and  Yanick  Bangala which has left the club’s supporters in dilemma.

However, in his clarification of the matter, Yanga’s Media and Communication Manager Ally Kamwe refuted the ongoing speculations concerning the release of Lomalisa insisting that the Congolese have one year to be featured by the Jangwani-based side.

“We are in a period whereby speculations are rampant as such, Yanga fans and members should only rely on verified information released through club officials and official statements from our club.

“As such, Lomalisa is our legal player just like the case it is with other players whose contracts are still active,” said Kamwe adding that for any player who has a valid contract with the club and would like to leave, procedures will be followed by both sides.

“Some of these speculations are made simply to disrupt our unity and focus, bearing in mind that at the moment, the management has channeled its attention on the next coach who is coming to take charge of the team.

“When the new coach is named, the exercise to parade new players for the upcoming season will instantly begin,” he said.

Currently, the Premier League defending champions are without Head Coach following the departure of their former Tunisian trainer Nasreddine Nabi who allegedly declined to extend his contract at the club.

One of Nabi’s best achievements marked during his tenure at the helm of the champions was steering them to the finals of last season’s CAF Confederation Cup a feat they never reached before.

Without a doubt, they endured through a successful season which also witnessed them defending three domestic titles they clinched during the 2021/22 campaign.

As such, people are wondering how far they will go in the upcoming CAF Champions League duels where they expect to compete and have already declared their interest to stamp success in the Champions League.

Yanga alongside Simba will engage in the champions league assignments while Azam and Singida Fountain Gate will feature in the confederation cup respectively.

Meanwhile, Yanga arch-rivals  Simba   have yesterday announced the offloading of their second-choice goalkeeper, Benno Kakolanya, and veteran midfielders; Jonas Mkude and  Erasto  Nyoni.

Apart from the duo, the Msimbazi-based street side has already parted ways with Nigerian holding midfielder  Victor  Akpan and  Nelson  Okwa and  Cote d’Ivoire central defender Mohamed Ouattara to date.