Who can please Adagala, the Muhoroni Youth overlord?

Muhoroni Youth FC will reflect on what might have been after a 2016 Kenyan Premier League (KPL) that was at best, the perfect example of Jekyll and Hyde- from the heights of KPL Top 8 glory to the despair of falling out of defending their crown next year.

The Awasi-based side emerged shock 1-0 winners over giants Gor Mahia FC in October’s finals of the knock-out tournament but slumped to a 10th finish, that flatters the team that was embroiled in one controversy after another.

Muhoroni claimed three wins from five of their opening fixtures and looked set to rival traditional top guns for the title before in-house wrangles between Club Chairman Moses Adagala, players and later the unceremonious firing of Coach James ‘Odijo’ Omondi set off an implosion.

With Adagala, the no nonsense administrator at the helm of the community club, Muhoroni has been a coaches and player revolving door this season, with two other different caretakers before Omondi’s successor and veteran tactician John ‘Bobby’ Ogolla was shown the door barely two months after his appointment.

Ogolla was faulted for failing to bring the sort of consistency Adagala craved for but the tactician’s decision to side with his players following a confrontation between the chairman and his squad.

In between the turbulence, former Harambee Stars international Tom Juma led the technical bench twice on interim capacity before he was finally elevated to the top post as the season approached its homestretch.

At one point, disgruntled players travelled all the way to Nairobi to seek refuge when they accused Adagala of hiring goons to beat them to shape as they agitated for their allowances.

The drama was hushly dealt as the KPL bosses thrashed out a fractious truce that saw the players resume training.

The nadir of the turmoil at the sugar-belt side was reached when they parted ways with top scorer Wycliffe Ochomo who was suspended from the team for indiscipline before being shoved out of the team when he was accused of leading the player revolt against the all-powerful Adagala.

Muhoroni finished the season on 38 points, having scored 26 goals and soaked in 32, the only side in the top-10 with a negative goal difference. 12 of the goals, almost half the tally, were from Ochomo, who ended the campaign as the runners-up to the Golden Boot despite not playing the final nine games of the season.

There is no telling where Muhoroni would have landed higher in the table with Ochomo’s goal after he was made to pay the ultimate sacrifice alongside fellow veterans Lwamba Bebeto and Yusuf Mohammed.

-Paul Nkata exit-

At the close of their 2015 season, Tusker FC Head Coach and 2016 domestic double winner Paul Nkata was at the helm of the club but after helping them to a sixth-place finish, the Brewers came knocking with a lucrative deal for the Ugandan.

But as he left, he had set high standards for successors with Omondi knowing a top five finish was the only way to impress his employers.

By the time of his departure, Omondi had guided the side to the semi-finals of the Top 8 tournament and sat comfortably at sixth in the league table with 20 points, just eight behind then leaders Tusker.

A 2-1 defeat in the hands of Kakamega Homeboyz towards the end of the first leg was his last match in charge.

“He caused problems in the club. We have a target to achieve and we can’t achieve it when a coach is not in good terms with players and management. Being at number six in the league is not everything, the yardstick for success goes beyond that, discipline is key,” Adagala offered as his reasons to fire the coach.

In reality, Omondi had simply refused to abandon his players but while Adagala insisted all was fine at the club, the cool head of Ogolla did not last long, fired by the trigger-happy chairman as he set out to start a morning training session.

His crime was seemingly acquiring mediocre mid season signings but with the shoe-string budget he was offered, that seemed to be a rich reason to fire him.

Juma was then elevated to the head coach role and Ibrahim Ateng appointed to deputise him as the season ended with some measure of calm at the club but it is an open guess how long the truce will last.