Highlanders coach Baltemar Brito has blamed the club’s leadership for failing to get the signature of in-form Bulawayo Chiefs striker Obriel Chirinda.

Brito has been monitoring Chirinda since last year and pushed the club to sign the player in this mid-season transfer window.

The striker, who moved to Chiefs this year, is in top form and has so far notched home seven goals, one behind top goalscorer Fortune Binzi of Manica Diamonds.

The former Chicken Inn man netted a hat-trick over the weekend to stir Amakhosi to a second successive win.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Brito bemoaned about failing to : “About bringing players (to the club) we don’t have the mentality or the culture to bring numbers. We look for one player and we look for some characteristics that the boy has and can come and upgrade our game in terms of quality.

“Obriel Chirinda is one of the many players that we put pressure on. It is not now that we made that pressure even last season, we wanted him because he is one player that we like, is one player who can fit into our game giving us a different dimension that we don’t have in our game.”

The gaffer added that the club’s leadership stopped the pursuit to sign Chirinda after receiving false information about the player.

He continued: “At the beginning of this month, we were close to bringing him in but there was some bad information, we don’t know if it was correct or wrong but I think the information was not true but the board (management) listened to these people and decided to bring the player later. Bulawayo Chiefs changed their coach and the player starts scoring, bringing him in now has become even harder. ”

With the mid-season transfer window set to close in just over a week, Highlanders are racing with time to reinforce the squad with a few new players.