Ingwe planning to kick coach out of the den

AFC Leopards' Coach Marko Vesiljevik consoles his player Isaac Kipyengon during the SportPesa premier league Match against KCB at Afraha Stadium in Nakuru on January 12, 2018. KCB won 1-0. [Photo: Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

AFC Leopards coach Marko Vasilejevic could be on his way out the club, The Nairobian has learned.

The club management recently summoned Vasilejevic and his entire technical bench to explain the poor run of form that leaves the video analyst-cum coach with only one win from seven games.

“We want Vasilejevic and the technical bench to tell us why the team can’t perform, yet we have given them everything. They must answer tough questions satisfactorily,” Oscar Igadia, Leopards secretary-general said.

Pressed if they were thinking about firing the entire technical bench, Igadia was non-committal.

 “I don’t want to preempt anything. Let’s meet first and see what happens after the meeting,” Igaida told The Nairobian.

If Vasilejevic walks out or is fired, he could be the 10th or 11th coach since 2015 to leave the den.

 AFC Leopards is not among the richest clubs in the region. In fact, it was one of the poorest clubs in the Kenyan Premier League until the recent SportPesa sponsorship.

Marko Vasilejevic could be on his way out the club [Courtesy]

Without the sponsorship deal, the newly signed deal with Umbro and the ever-dwindling gate collection, Ingwe would have nothing to brag about in terms of revenue stream.

However, this has not deterred them from changing the playing unit and tacticians like clothes.

Players and coaches have found it hard staying in the stuffy den. Most coaches who have tried to lay their hands on the unstable job have left in a huff after a very short stint.

Vasilejevic’s exit will make Ingwe coaching job among the riskiest in the world.

Not even the richest club in the world, Real Madrid, can compete with Ingwe when it comes to firing coaches, despite the fact that big clubs have financial muscles to pay for damages in cases where they terminate contracts prematurely.

Compared to Real Madrid and Chelsea, two European clubs known for changing managers so often — cumulatively seven coaches have handled the two teams compared to Ingwe’s nine since October 2015 when they parted ways with Zdravko Lugarusic.

After Lugarusic, Ingwe recycled Dutch tactician Jan Koops, but then let him go after wooing Ivan Minnaert. But, Minnaert’s stay did not last. He was replaced by Ezekiel Akwana, who lasted for a month before Stewart Hall (2016-17) came calling. Hall was also sacked and replaced by Dorian Marin in the 2017 season.

Marin was ‘hired’ by the limping Leopards in June, but lasted a disastrous 12 days on the job, before spectacularly falling out with the club’s executives, fans and the playing unit, over racism claims.

He was replaced by Tom Juma on a temporary basis, before paving way for Robert Matano, who had just lost his job at Ulinzi Stars. But Matano too never lasted and was replaced by Tanzanian Dennis Kitambi.

Kitambi then left the job for Argentine Rodolfo Zapata, who never lasted even a full season. Zapata left before the end of the season, forcing Ingwe management to hand the technical bench role to assistant coach Tom Juma.

Juma was later demoted upon Ingwe acquisition of Nikola Kavazovic. But the Serb never even had a chance to sit on the dugout — he chickened out barely three weeks into his two-year deal.

The outspoken Serbian, known as ‘Mr. Fix It’, hopped out of the stuffy den even before the start of the season, despite signing a two-year deal with the Dan Mule side.

Kavazovic duped Ingwe that he was travelling to his native country to attend to his sick dad, only to sign a new deal with South African Premier League side, Free States Stars.

A malnourished Ingwe was left with no option but to gather the carcasses by employing inexperienced Marko Vasilejevic who now stares at the same fate as his predecessors.

Past coaches since 2015: Zdravko Lugarusic (2015), Jan Koops (2016), Ivan Minnaert (2016), Ezekiel Akwana (2016),  Stewart Hall (2016-17), Dorian Marin (2017), Robert Matano (2017/18), Dennis Kitambi (2018), Rodolfo Zapata (2018), Tom Juma, Nikola Kavazovic, Marko Vasilejevic (2018).