FOOTBALL AFC Leopards: Five reasons Ingwe seem lost in the woods

Despite the morale-boosting win over Kakamega Homeboyz, AFC Leopards are still not out of the woods yet. Pulse Sports highlights some of the reasons behind their struggles

AFC Leopards secured their second win of the season following an impressive 2-0 victory over Kakamega Homeboyz on Sunday, easing some pressure on the players and coach Tomas Trucha.

Leopards have endured a tough season that even the most pessimistic fans did not expect. After last year’s seventh-place finish, many hoped that this campaign would be better, especially after the club was allowed to sign players, but things have become worse instead.

Ingwe had won just one match in 14 attempts, drawing eight while losing five, before Cliffton Miheso's penalty and Hassan Beja's strike saw them down fancied Homeboyz to lift them from 15th on the table to 13th with 14 points, although three other teams have accumulated as much. 

Leopards headed into the clash with their backs against the wall, their last and only win at the time coming on October 29, but somehow found enough to down Abana Abeingo who had been on a five-match winning run that left them just one point behind leaders Gor Mahia.

Most of Leopards problems are, however, self-inflicted given the numerous missteps the cub has been making over the years. Pulse Sports highlights what has contributed to Ingwe’s recent struggles. 

Inept leadership

Leopards seem to be led by people who do not know what they are doing or if they do, then it is for self-gain.

Chairman Dan Shikanda is currently the man in the hot seat and while he bears responsibility for the current malaise, it was not any better even before his reign.

Successful Leopards leaderships have failed to put in structures that would sustain the club for the long-term and only seem to react by changing coaches whenever things do not go well.

That is how they have ended up with 16 coaches in the last 11 years but seem to move from one crisis to another. This season has emphasised that when Tom Juma was sacked just six games into his new role with his replacement Tomas Trucha failing to get a tune out of the players so far.

Former Leopards midfielder Charles Okwemba captured well the club’s problems recently.

“AFC Leopards have a lot of challenges but I am not so sure they know what their challenges are. Why, because for some years, they keep repeating the same things, expecting different results which does not happen. So, they first of all need to identify what their problems are,” he told Citizen TV in October.

Disharmony

Related to poor leadership in the unending wrangling among the club hierarchy. Shikanda has previously been said to have fallen out with Secretary General Gilbert Andugu which has affected decision-making.

The club boss admitted to this last week when he said there is a lot of ‘negative influence at the club’ while accusing some officials of abandoning the team.

Cases of officials pulling in different directions is an age-old problem at Leopards and was witnessed during the reigns of Julius Ochiel, Alex Ole Magelo, Mathews Opwora, Allan Kasavuli and Dan Mule, all who were hounded out of office at different times.

“You can always blame the fans but there are some things that come from within. Even now since I left, they have not been doing well,” former coach Tom Juma said last month, hinting at some forces being behind his sacking and not just poor results.

It does not seem like it will change any time soon in the wake of Shikanda’s revelations, meaning fans will continue bearing the pain.

Poor recruitment

With a disjointed executive, Leopards have moved from one mistake to another when it comes to signing players and this season has not been any different.

Shikanda laid bare the problems that precipitated this season’s crisis when he admitted the transfer committee the club put in place to sign new players did a sub-par job.

He lamented how he was now taking blame after the committee signed so many players that were not up to scratch just because they were from a certain community.

Leopards registered 20 players following the lifting of their transfer ban and instead of solving last season’s problems, they made matters worse. Further, the players were registered just days to the start of the new season, denying the coach an opportunity to work with them in pre-season.

Juma and his successor Trucha have tried to put together a winning team without success as the squad looks imbalanced and at times out of ideas.

It has been hard to build an understanding at a time results are supposed to be trickling in and they face a situation where they will have to go big again in the midseason transfer window to solve the mistakes of four months ago.

Identity crisis 

With players and coaches changing regularly, Leopards have also found themselves in a situation where they cannot build a certain way of playing.

They appeared to be getting it right under Belgian coach Patrick Aussems before he quit in July but those after him have not been able to do it largely due to a lack of enough time with the squad on the training ground.

Without this, Leopards have had to rely on moments of brilliance or penalties to get a result but it has proved unsustainable.

Going by Okwemba’s sentiments, this is not just this season’s problem. “Leopards is a club that keeps changing coaches every now and then so it becomes very difficult to get the continuity. If you keep changing the coaches, the players will keep changing and this is not very good,” he noted. 

Lack of goals

Trucha has prioritised signing a new striker in the January transfer window and it is not hard to understand why. Leopards have scored 11 goals this season, with Muhoroni Youth (six) and Kariobangi Sharks (nine) the only teams with a worse record.

What is more, five have been penalties with a couple from corners. Ingwe do not score enough from open play and on the rare occasions when they create clear chances, they waste them.

It is largely the reason Leopards have recorded eight draws with seven of them ending either 0-0 or 1-1. It means if they had a clinical striker, some of the draws would have been turned into wins and ease off some pressure.

For now, it is a gamble upfront until Trucha gets his man in which is another damning indictment on the club and the much-maligned transfer committee.

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