Gor Mahia in desperate need of inspiration

Despite last season’s historic unbeaten league run, Gor Mahia have won only one of their last five fixtures and after suffering a 3-1 aggregate defeat to Madagascan champions CNaPS in the CAF Champions League, what’s next for K’Ogalo?

Not only has Gor failed miserably on the continental stage – Kenyan football has altogether.

Together with Bandari, both clubs were the two main forces in the Kenyan Premier League last season but early elimination by opponents who were eminently beatable is another harsh indictment of the standards of the country’s top flight football.

While Twahir Muhiddin’s side can take positives from the 1-1 draw at home to Saint Eloi Lupopo after losing 2-0 away, Gor’s home and away losses only spell the team’s need for urgent reforms.

K’Ogalo have found themselves struggling to match the force they were last season and have a paltry two points in their opening equal number of league matches.

In those two games, K’Ogalo have found the back of the net only once and clearly miss the services of attacking duo Michael Olunga and Meddie Kagere who were at the center of the team’s free-scoring run last season.

Olunga has since completed his transfer to Swedish side Djurgården while Kagere moved to Rwanda’s S.C. Kiyovu Sport after lamenting he felt ‘unappreciated’ during his stay at Gor.

The SPL champions have been rocked by managerial infighting in the past few months and this could explain their startling start to the new season.

Head coach Frank Nutall was initially fired for allegedly refusing to take a 50 percent pay-cut after he insisted he in fact deserved a 10 percent raise on his deal as per the terms of his contract. However, following the intervention of fans who widely expressed their displeasure at his sacking, the Scottish international was reinstated.

Ugandan international Khalid Aucho recently revealed that the club owed him ‘a lot of money’ and it is understood that the midfielder has been absconding duty over the simmering pay dispute with his employer.

-Clearest indication-

This could just be the clearest indication that K’Ogalo are on the verge of losing all of their star performers  from last season and are definitely not too far away from reaching crisis point.

While the record 15-time titleholders are clearly suffering the after-shock of losing star players, the team needs to bounce back immediately.

And they will need the strikers brought in to fit into the giant boots vacated by Olunga and Kagere, who was widely acknowledged within the local circles as the main driving force of the team.

With Rwandese striker Jacques Tuyisenge yet to recover from injury, 24-year-old Harambee Stars international, Jacob Keli must shoulder the goal-scoring weight for his team although he has done little to suggest he will hit the heights of leading a title charge from the front.

Three games into the 2016 season, the team that led from almost start to finish last time is already five points adrift of the early front-runners albeit with a game in hand and face Ulinzi Stars, their closest challengers in 2015 in their next SPL clash on Thursday.

Somebody somewhere needs to start making them tick again.