AFC pumped up and ready for flip-flopping K’Ogalo

What you need to know:

  • Those who have watched Ingwe in their league matches will agree that we have a team capable of lifting the 2017 SportPesa Premier League title.
  • We appreciate John Stewart Hall’s technical bench good job for the great football we have witnessed since the season started.
  • As things stand, our struggling Mashemeji’s in green will be in extreme trouble when we face them on May 14.

Those who have watched Ingwe in their league matches will agree that we have a team capable of lifting the 2017 SportPesa Premier League title.

We appreciate John Stewart Hall’s technical bench good job for the great football we have witnessed since the season started.

As things stand, our struggling Mashemeji’s in green will be in extreme trouble when we face them on May 14. Hall’s physical training team of Mike Shamiah, Shwan Shane, doctor’s Patrick Ngusale and his assistant Noel Mandi deserve a mention.

Our able team manager, Tony Lidonde, is a good role model for the boys as he has given them an opportunity to meet former players and learn more from them. By introducing dietary advice to players, the technical bench is proving to be the best in the club’s history.

Ulinzi Stars, regarded as the most physical side in the league, could not match AFC Leopards at Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos last Wednesday. Throughout the game that ended in a barren draw, I saw Ulinzi get more and more defensive.

The soldiers were forced to ‘park the bus’, kick and run, an unattractive brand of football. We need more coaches and administrators like Hall to do better.

Under his guidance, AFC Leopards is slowly becoming famous for their “total football” philosophy that the club was know for during the time of legends Mulamba Wilberforce, Josephat Murila, Peter Lichungu, Mike Amwayi, the late Francis Kadenge, Musuku’s Ben and Dan, the Ambani’s Fred and Boniface and Reginald Asibwa.

Very soon, Ingwe will be transformed into one of Africa’s finest if the home-grown talent can be natured, unlike our noisy neighbours who rely on foreign players. Inferiority complex sometimes prevents us from believing that our players are capable of playing good football, thereby stifling Kenyan football.

Having watched Ingwe in three matches, we are on course to being ranked among the top teams in Africa, now that the club is now trying to invest in developing our own players more than before and our coaching is dramatically different compared to last season.

Four of the players - Marcelas Ingosi, Elias Mai Ibrahim, Lewis Wenani and Vincent Ouma - in the senior team came through Ingwe’s junior side managed by former international Boniface Ambani.

GOOD STRATEGY

Ambani has a strategy to scout for talent before they mature to join the senior team to be taught the same system. Once in the academy, the players study Ingwe’s game, learn the benefit of healthy diet and physical flexibility to prosper in the game.

According to club records, the current AFC Leopards squad comprises players aged between 17 and 25. With their technical skills, they all have the credentials to make the squad.

Harun Nyakha may only be 19 but he is already making a name for himself in the fiercely-competitive Kenyan Premier League. The youngster from Khwisero in Kakamega County has a future.

He has technical ability, he is fast, offensive, creative and have a lot of speed and quickness of thinking; he will be a star soon.
With the players that we have in the team, we can supply more talented players to the national team.
Focus on club’s academy is vital to our future plans. In the 70s and 80s, Leopards depended on schools like Kakamega High School, Musingu, Mukumu, among others, to get players.
Believe it or not, big-spending clubs in Africa and Europe are just as fixated on developing their own talent.
My friend Hall told me that he would like to see in the future, players coming through our youth system to the first team
Hall wants to fashion Ingwe along the lines of English Premier League clubs whereby a young play can sign with a club at age nine and if they progress through the ranks, agree professional terms at the age of 17.
This team must be retained for more years until we start negotiating for them serious deals with big clubs in Africa and Europe.