Jompano is down, but is he out?

The Strait of Hormuz opened and closed and even reopened and closed again and TelOne are yet to win a league match this season.

Hebert ‘Jompano’ Maruwa’s charges have had an awful start to the 2026 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League campaign by their standards.

Somehow, and many don’t know how, they are yet to taste victory eight match days into a season that promised much but is turning out to be delivering little.

The WiFi Boys were at some point in the title picture last season with the combination of eventual Soccer Star of the Year and Golden Boot winner Washington Navaya and Tawanda Macheke, firing from all cylinders.

Navaya has since left for newly promoted Hardrock, but many will believe that his departure can better explain TelOne’s woes this season.

Last week’s defeat to log leaders CAPS United was their fifth and worryingly for the Gweru-based outfit, four of those loses have come at their home and what used to be a fortress — Ascot Stadium.

Insiders at the club, though hard to comprehend, are arguing that a former employee of the club, who was fired recently, is ‘sabotaging’ the team.

How and why that former employee’s alleged actions and ‘sabotage’ are influencing results, is simply a debate that will go on until the cows come home.

What’s certainly not up for debate is the fact that if fortunes don’t change at TelOne, the WiFi Boys can be genuine relegation contenders, as was the case in 2024.

Maruwa’s smile and chuckle when he was asked by journalists if he has the backing of the Oscar Nduwure-led executive, following the defeat to CAPS, speak volume of a coach who knows his paymasters love him.

“They (members of the executive) always support me. Remember, in December we were on number 5 and we can’t then be that bad two months later,” said Maruwa.

Unbeknown to the former Black Rhinos coach though, it’s actually four months since TelOne occupied fifth position at the end of last season, not two.

What he is probably not also aware of, is that things change very quickly in football.

The next four fixtures might actually reveal whether or not Maruwa has the full backing of the TelOne executive as the soft-spoken coach claims.

They host Herentals at Ascot this weekend before traveling to Gibbo to face a somewhat resurgent Triangle United.

They then welcome Hardrock in a tricky Midlands derby before visiting Ngezi Platinum Stars in what will be another big test.