Coaches come and coaches go away

What you need to know:

  • Gor Mahia coach Marcelo Ferreira “Ze Maria” ‘resigned’ a few days ago and flew out the same day.
  • They were getting better under his charge and the team looked finer with confidence on the ball.
  • Now Zedekiah Ochieng’ “Zico” has made his comeback to the club and is calling the shots midway through the league.

There are some clichés that shall never die in this country and lazy writers shall keep quoting from them for eternity. Feeling lazy too this weekend I shall quote just two of them so that I also look cool and stupid.

“There comes a time when the nation is more important than an individual”. That was said by the late George Saitoti when Kasarani became kisirani to him.

It was a silly statement since at all times, the nation is more important than the individual.

And that is why we even have individuals sacrificing themselves to “save” the nation. The statement of course shows us the thinking of the ruling class and how they perceive the nation.

They are at the top of the food chain and feel more important than the nation as they gaze down at the rest of us. We appear to them like the biblical Lazarus eating crumbs from under their dining table.

It was a very spiteful statement and many fools quote it seeking to look wise!

“Coaches come, coaches go”. That was taken from Joab Omino who was at the time the head of Kenya Football federation (KFF). He was getting rid of Reinhardt Fabisch - one of the most successful Kenya coach.

The main point is that the federation was not paying the coach and he had to leave the team. Instead of paying him, the late Omino was paying lip service to the gallery.

The Kenyans were asking questions about Fabisch’s departure and the leadership of football was giving the usual foolish answers to pacify them. Fabisch made a return many years later and God knows if he was ever paid all his dues. It is the Kenyan way.

The mid-season break is over and coaches of all Kenyan teams are getting sacked or being threatened with the sack. The teams hire them and unveil them in colourful ceremonies and then sack them with terse statements to the press.

Gor Mahia coach Marcelo Ferreira “Ze Maria” ‘resigned’ a few days ago and flew out the same day.

His resignation letter did not say much, it was rather diplomatic but some dyed in the wool sources reveal a fall out between him and the club officials over what the sources termed as “unrealistic demands made by the manager”.

We shall never know the unrealistic demands and those that we offered by the sources seem to be for the betterment of the club! I even shudder to give them to the public since it may paint the real picture of those given the duty to (mis)manage the club.

They were getting better under his charge and the team looked finer with confidence on the ball. Now Zedekiah Ochieng’ “Zico” has made his comeback to the club and is calling the shots midway through the league.

He must do a Herculean task to maintain the tempo or else some goons may make life hell for him.