By Fredrick Nadulli,
With the Sportpesa Premier League on the home stretch and Gor Mahia galloping towards the crown with an unassailable lead, the rugged terrain that is the Kenyan league appears yet again unforgiving and unpredictable, as coaches would lend crecedence.
Some who came into the 2017 season with big credentials have since fallen off the radar and disappeared without a trace. Only fate hangs over their heads like the proverbial sword of Damocles. Others exceeded expectations and deservedly earned rave reviews.
Rookie managers Bernard Mwalala and William Muluya are a case in point.
As is the norm, big heads are certain to roll when the curtains come down at the end of the season.
CHAMPIONS-ELECT
With a massive 15 point gap twixt them and their closest challengers, Gor Mahia are 2017 league champions, take that to a good bank. They have wrestled the coveted trophy back from Tusker. When the kitchen got too hot for Jose Marcelo Ferreira to handle, the Brazilian better known as Ze Maria decamped to cool off in Albania.
In came little known Englishman Dylan Kerr and his magic rubbed off immediately. The Kenya giants put up a virtuoso perfomance in Tanzania against a strong Everton side after winning the Sportpesa championship and have not looked back since. Littered with an array of top internationals, Gor has no peers on the local scene and for that Kerr and his assistant Zico Otieno can rest easy.
Kakamega Homeboyz has confounded friends and foes alike.With a lean squad and very limited budget, Mike Mururi has conjured up a formidable unit that dares the big boys. Abana Abeingo’s consistent displays have left their diehards rubbing their palms in glee and Mururi purring in delight, the former Kenya midfielder letting his astute managerial skills do the bidding for him.
Sofapaka is a side whose short history can complete loads of chapters in their chequered existence in Kenya’s top flight. This team has seen the best and worst of football this part of the world. Bankrolled by flamboyant Elly Kalekwa and coached by returnee Ugandan Sam Simbwa, Batoto ba Mungu has claimed major scalps along the way and reclaimed its respected past, after years of teetering on the brink of relegation and even bankruptcy. Simbwa has silently steered a reincarnation of sorts at the club, giving ‘Le Prezda’ wind in his hitherto failing sails to scout for more funding for the model club credited for revolutionalizing player salaries and minimum wages when they earned promotion to the premier division.
SHADOWS IN THE DARK
What more can be said of Tusker? besides Gor, the beer makers of Ruaraka boast of the second most talented pool of professionals. Backed by giant company Kenya Breweries, this is a team that presumably lacks in nothing. George Nsimbe was roped in to assume the mantle after his fellow countryman and double winning coach of 2016, Ugandan Paul Nkata set sail to Mombasa. Sadly for Nsimbe, he took over at a time Tusker was at their football apex, his major task to make the Ruaraka outfit shine in Africa. Their continental campaign ended before it even began, and the Ugandan with his assistant Francis Baraza have looked out of depth in the premier league. With a mid table finish inevitable, public opinion heavily suggests its only a matter of when, not if, Nsimbe heads back to his native Uganda.
The man who meanwhile made way for his compatriot to surprisingly take over the reigns at Bandari is himself groping in the dark. Paul Nkata went to Bandari breathing fire and brimstone, presided over a wobbly outfit that struggled to maintain any consistency, and now appears stubbornly unable to steer the Portsmen out of troubled waters. Those who know the politics and dynamics of the coast based side will tell you after a thorough post-season audit, Paul Nkata will not be the coxwain of the Bandari ship moving forward.
NEW WORLD ORDER
While the Ugandans and a couple of other locals are seeing blue, two relative young men are proving their mettle. Bernard Mwalala is working magic at Nzoia, but it is William Muluya, perhaps the youngest coach in the top flight, who has trashed the often bandied narrative of ‘experience’. “Kanu” has done exceedingly well at Kariobangi Sharks, keeping his youthful team’s head above the raging waters, playing sleek attacking football besides guiding the debutantes to the final of the GOtv Shield where continental football beckons.
His best and arguably most memorable result was the 3 – 0 hiding his team handed Mathare United, the coach himself a protege of the soccer school of Mathare duo Francis Kimanzi and Salim Ali.
Sammy Omollo at Posta Rangers and Benjamin Nyangweso at Ulinzi Stars, as expected, have brought some balance to their respective sides, although not to the high levels touted at the start of the 2017 season.
Nicholas Muyoti is learning his ropes well at Thika United and Salim Babu at SoNy Sugar appears to have finally got a firm grip of the premier league terrain.
After the exit of elder statesman Henry Omino at the helm of Western Stima, the top division was left with one revered and much experienced old head. Robert Matano landed at troubled AFC Leopards with gusto and suddenly nobody was sitting pretty. There was a cat among the pigeons. The “Lion” brought his tough ideas to bear at the struggling giants but time seems to have stood still. They are yet to find the perfect tonic.
For a side of their calibre, their hard-to-please diehards cannot stomach their lowly rankings. Only victory in the Shield final and a chance to play in the CAF Confederations cup will placate their restless faithful.
In Kenya, as is the rest of the world, football coaching is a thankless job. Only time will tell how long the game of musical chairs persists.
