Tom Bwana: Only Mashemeji Derby can redeem Nuttall

As sure as the Earth rotates on its own axis, Gor Mahia coach Frank Nuttall is on his way out of the club.

He has lost the backing of the club’s administration. Painfully he’s said to have lost the confidence of the players. Match officials keep shushing him on the touchline. Opposing coaches, with way lower salaries, keep embarrassing him on match days.

The Scotsman is now left with only a handful of fans on his side. Unfortunately these fans are not patient enough to love anyone unconditionally for long. The only unconditional allegiance they have is reserved for their club – not individuals. Very soon they will question their loyalty to an underachieving Nuttall.

Listen, I’m not sure there’s been a coach at Gor as adored as Zdravko Logarušić in the recent past. Yet when he crossed to AFC Leopards, the Green Army booed him. And who was extolled at Gor more than Danni Sserunkuma? Wasn’t Harun Shakava cheered when he nearly killed Danni in the DSTV Cup at the beginning of February this year?

Anyone working for Gor Mahia should know that there’s no eternal love on these streets. Hapa ni kazi tu!

Nuttall has achieved what many coaches merely dream of. He has two league medals; the 2014 title in which he was in charge of the last 9 matches and the much lauded 2015 unbeaten run in which the true spirit of K’Ogalo morphed to life thrashing teams mercilessly on the road to glory.

But the 2016 season has started badly for him; played 5, drawn 2, lost 3. Awful!  The last time Gor failed to win in an entire month of more than 4 matches you’d have to go back to March 2012 in which the club drew 3 and lost 3. That month Cameroonian tactician Anaba Awono was tersely fired. Is Nuttall on his way out? For sure it seems.

The aplomb push with which we played last season is no more. We are left with a mere shadow of the ferocious charisma that dismissed teams left right and centre at the CECAFA Club Championships in Tanzania last year. Today, our players do not even want to look at us straight in the eye as they trudge off the pitch following defeats.

The coach is nebulously incomprehensible. He has lost the only tool that can give him results even amidst tumult; the dressing room.

Reports are rife that he doesn’t see eye to eye with what is left of K’Ogalo’s top players; typical augury of failure. The only support he has is from some fans who feel he deserves better treatment for his 2015 historic triumph.

Unfortunately the fans’ love is only as elastic as the coach winning. Without results, they succinctly tell you off.

-Nutall lifeline-

But Nuttall has a lifeline, or so it seems! The Mashemeji Derby is here. He can redeem himself. Listen, as a Gor coach, you can win all including the World Cup if possible but without beating AFC Leopards we don’t rate you anywhere.

And this is why Queen Logarušić still has a name in this town. The Croat may have failed to win the League but he won every match for Gor in his four Mashemeji Derby outings. Legend!

The gentle British Coach Bobby Williamson oversaw 53 matches for K’Ogalo winning 28, drawing 12 and losing 13. That 53% winning scale means nothing given that he won none of his four Mashemeji Derby matches; drawing two and painfully losing the rest.

Coach Nuttall met AFC Leopards twice last season. He incomprehensibly failed to conjure a winning formula when he had a superior squad at his disposal against a handicapped Ingwe side in the 1-1 April 2015 meeting. Disheartening!

And now, in the face of an imminent exit, fate has served the beleaguered Scotsman with a lifeline. He has Mashemeji Derby on the 6^th of March to redeem himself. Will he take it? Will his players save his face? The fans have a critical decision to make by 5pm on the sixth day of March. Coach Nuttall should pray it goes his way!

@TomBwana