Facing bleak future

By James Waindi

At the end of the 2008-09 Kenyan Premier League (KPL) season, Agro Chemical and Bandari were not good enough to avoid relegation.

It was a bad season for the Muhoroni-based Agro Chemical as former coach Henry Omino found out. The club now turns toward its murky future in the Nationwide League and wonders how long it will take to return to top-flight football.

Bouncing back to the Premier League has been a tricky proposition in recent times, even though one of the promoted teams from this season, Mahakama, accomplished the feat.

Sofapaka’s John Baraza (left) and Agro Chemical goalkeeper at a past KPL match. PHOTO: TITUS MUNALA /STANDARD . Keep Reading  Detectives probe raid, robbery of reservist's gun

Celebrated survival

As it turned out, the two clubs that could have been relegated on the final match day on November 21, Bandari and Agro Chemical lost but Red Berets and AFC Leopards, the pre-season relegation favourites, celebrated survival.

After finishing the previous season at a respectable third position, with their tactician Omino voted the second best coach of the year, the Muhoroni Club hoped for a better season but all turned to be a roller coaster and eventually a disaster.

They had lost the fight even before their final match against Leopards on November 21 where they lost 2-0.

The final day’s result never mattered to them since they had only managed five wins from 30 matches with 23 points the entire season, a sharp contrast to the previous season and they entered the final fixture knowing they were already out of top flight football.

"I attribute Agro Chemical’s relegation to mass exodus of players from the club. This was a major blow that we could not recover from throughout the entire season.

Mass exodus

After beating some of the league’s top sides and finishing third the previous season, most of our players had marketed themselves and we lost nine first team players at the start of the season. This was a major set back and we had to mould new ones to try and play catch up after a poor start," said Omino.

Omino said after surviving the exodus, his new players started gelling and the team started picking up the pace five weeks into the league, but as the mid season transfer window opened, he lost the cream of the team again to rival clubs.

"Inconsistency is what messed us up last season. After the mass exodus at the beginning of the season, we moulded new players and just as the team was stablilising and back to its feet, they again left for greener pastures," said Omino.

He said that after the sacking, he preferred to start off with little-known players to prove his abilities.

For Bandari, a final day battle for survival against Red Berets ended in Berets’ favour as they lost 2-0 to former champions Mathare United, while Berets shocked Nairobi City Stars 2-0 to stay afloat.