Only the players can save Leopards

So Ingwe’s steady slide to ignominy continues unabated. It is no longer a case of whether or not Ingwe will lose, it is about the margin of defeat.

That is how low this otherwise great club has sunk. Never before have I seen diehard fans keep away from the stadium, fully convinced, and rightly so, that our beloved Ingwe will somehow be thrashed.

I don’t remember the last time I counted more players on the field of play than fans on the terraces until last Saturday when only a handful of fans turned up to witness another humiliating defeat at the hands of a fairly average side called Western Stima.

The way matters are unfolding, not the officials, not the technical bench, not the fans will save Ingwe from the steady but sure decline.

So because the officials are clueless. They have absolutely no idea where the problem lies. Were they not the ones who told the Ingwe nation that the coach, Ivan Minnaert was the problem? Well, Minnaert went but the decline continues.

Were they not the same ones who claimed the club’s performance is being undermined by drunkenness on the part of the players?

Were they not the same officials who leaked minutes of a purported Ingwe NEC meeting which discussed an alleged sex fest touching on some players whose identities they even leaked to the press only for the said players to be fielded in Saturday’s defeat? 

SCARED AWAY FANS

It all boils down to the same thing; the so called officials simply do not know where the problem lies, period.

The technical bench is equally clueless. A mere look at Saturday’s line-up scared away thousands of Ingwe fans who were on their way to Nyayo stadium to cheer the boys.

How the likes of Bernard Mang’oli, the team’s playmaker, Yakub Ramadhani and Ndirangu could be sacrificed for the likes of Abuko, Ambulwa and Mwanzo only Akwana can explain.

How a coach in his right sense of mind can prefer a central pairing of Ambulwa and Mwanzo, the two slowest defenders in the den, at the expense of the likes of Saleh, Ramadhan and Mawira baffles me.

As things stand now, only the players alone can save Ingwe’s season, not Mule and his ilk, not Akwana.

The players will only save Ingwe if they appreciate that they have to pull Ingwe from the abyss for their own sake, not for the fans, not for the NEC.
They will do this only if they appreciate that the Ingwe jersey offers them a rare opportunity to market themselves to better opportunities beyond the country’s borders. That it is about their careers, about their very lives.

This is the moment for the boys to seize that opportunity. [email protected]