Wazito keep faith in Mohammed after Ouna exit

Ahmed Mohammed will take charge of the relegated Wazito FC as the clubs head coach, Solomon Alubala, club’s patron has confirmed.

Mohammed has been assisting Coach Frank Ouna in the just concluded 2018 Kenyan Premier League (KPL) season and the departure of Ouna has earned Mohammed the promotion.

On Wednesday, Alubala told Citizen Digital the club management unanimously agreed to promote Mohammed to the top office, further expressing his confidence in the tactician.

“We believe in the idea of succession and that has been our tradition. Mohammed has been with us and we are going to support him fully. He has enough experience to take us through the next challenge,” Alubala affirmed.

Despite the difficult debut season in KPL, Alubala notes the lessons learnt in the topflight are invaluable, and will be key in their quest to reign supreme in the National Super League (NSL).

“We had interesting experience in the KPL, we now know what we didn’t do better and we want to thank Frank Ouna for being with us. We also wish him well in his future endeavors,” a grateful Alubala said.

Ouna, who is also a former Gor Mahia assistance coach, parted ways with Wazito on mutual grounds barely a week after the club was relegated and has since joined KPL promoted side, KCB on a two-year deal.

Wazito finished 17th position in the 18-team league with 31 points out of 34 games ahead of only Thika United, who had 23 points.

The Nairobi based club earned promotion to the topflight league last year, and Alubala blames financial challenges as the main reason for relegation.

“We had zero sponsorship at the beginning of the season. This affected our plans totally as we lost good players during the transfer window because we couldn’t keep them.

“This was a big blow as we couldn’t get the players we wanted at that time because we didn’t have enough funds,” offered the long-serving Wazito official.

Wazito FC are working on strengthening their squad for the NSL campaign next season, with Alubala hinting signing high profile players.

The transfer window will open in a one week time and will close on January 4, 2019 with both KPL and NSL set to kick off on December 8, 2018.

The race for NSL title in 2017 was tight but Wazito managed a second place finish behind then champions Vihiga United, both amassing 80 points the later ruling thanks to a better goal difference.