Nairobi City Stars ready to prove critics wrong in KPL

By Gilbert Wandera

It is said, once beaten, twice shy. Last season Nairobi City Stars had to wait until the last minute to secure their survival in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL).

It was an ordeal that extricated the energy within the club’s playing unit and left the technical bench with sleepless nights, which coach Gideon Ochieng is not ready to endure for the second time.

Ochieng said they have learnt from their mistakes and the situation last season has given them the best experience of how bad things can get to and are now looking forward to a better performance this season.

"Our target is to ensure that we are out of relegation zone at the end of the first leg and then go for the title itself during the second leg matches," said Ochieng, who has been officially signed to handle the club this year.

The former Gor Mahia coach took over City Stars in the second leg of last season and dragged the club out of the relegation bus after by stopping Karuturi Sports 4-2 at Hope Centre on the last day of competition.

Change of guard

Ochieng took over from Ken Odhiambo, who was allowed to take a break from the day to day handling of the team when it appeared that he could not help them survive. Odhiambo has since joined Gor as an assistant coach.

"We have learnt from the mistakes of last season and are determined that we will not find ourselves in a similar situation again.

In this regard we have made good recruitments and we have the players to help us achieve our goal," Ochieng told FeverPitch.

Ochieng has re-signed Silas Aluvisa from AFC Leopards and Levy Muaka formerly of Tusker and he is delighted by the experience the two will bring back to the club.

"This league is very demanding and sometimes you need one or two experienced players to help you achieve your goal. We are confident that the two can do it for us by encouraging the young players to up their game," explained Ochieng.

Better performance

The coach said he has challenged his players to focus on bringing positive results on the pitch and not worry about money issues at the present time.

"Right now money issues are the least of our worries. I have challenged the boys to do well and then all this things will fall into place," he said.

The club has no sponsors and struggled to pay their players for a good part of last season but the coach insists this should not affect performance.

"I have experienced it with Gor. The team did not have a sponsor and they struggled to pay their players but when the results came, many sponsors wanted to come on board.

"I have told my players to focus on performance because when you are at the bottom no sponsor will want to talk to you," he said.

City Stars have also added seven other players in their squad ahead of the new season. They are Francis Akango, Ronnie Kagunzi, Nicholas Ochieng, Andrew Ongwae, who were formerly at Gor Mahia. Others are Boniface Onyango, Collins Tiego signed from Rangers FC and John Amboko whom they got from AFC Leopards.