Former Stars boss Nyongesa calls for Okumbi patience

Former Harambee Stars coach and player, Sammy Nyongesa has absolved besieged boss Stanley Okumbi from blame following Sunday’s bitter defeat to Guinea Bissau that knocked Kenya out of the 2017 AFCON finals.

Speaking during the finals of the Tongaren Transformation Initiative Easter tournament held in Bungoma County, Nyongesa urged football fans to calm down and give the new Stars head coach time to organize his squad because he was meeting some players for the first time since he was appointed.

“You cannot blame the coach always, the team has never been together thus leading to poor coordination. Paul Were and Jockins Atudo joined the camp a day to the match so how do you expect them to relate with other players?

“You know a team is like a human body, every part of the body needs the other so the team also needs to be together for sometime so that the players can know each other. The federation should also pull up its socks to ensure that players are in camp on time and they are motivated,” Nyongesa, who is the father to another former international, Mike Baraza told Mulembe FM Sport.

Stars are bottom of Group E with only a point after four matches with Bissau top on seven points followed by Congo and Zambia with six each.

The Tongaren tournament which kicked off on Good Friday and ended on Easter Sunday brought together 12 teams with Mulembe FC from Kanduyi Constituency emerging as the winners after trouncing home team Mbakalo FC 1-0.

“Am happy my boys played well, they did not disappoint us, however, I’m urging them to put in more effort so that they can play for bigger teams either in the national super league, the SportPesa Premier League or even international football because they have the potential,” Mulembe coach, Ronald Kenyatta said.

“The game was hard but the team was well composed, they played fantastic football but I think lack was not on our side because we lost several chances. We have learnt a lot from this tournament and we have agreed as the technical bench that we are going to work extra hard to correct the mistakes,” his opposite number, Ben Wekulo added.