Gor Mahia not interested in Logarusic
Gor Mahia secretary general Chris Omondi has said that Gor Mahia would not be interested in rehiring coach Zdravko Logarusic. The charismatic coach Croatian coach was recently fired by Simba FC.
Loga as he is popularly known took over as Gor Mahia coach in 2012 and steered Gor Mahia from the relegation zone to the brink of winning the national league. This feat mad him a hero among Gor Mahia fans. He also won the praise of fans for always beating arch rivals AFC Leopards. But he quit in 2013 with Gor Mahia sitting atop the national league due to a disagreement about his contract.
Ever since he left, a section of Gor Mahia fans have been demanding his return. The demands reached a crescendo when current coach Bobby Williamson announced he was leaving to become Harambee stars coach.
However Omondi has indicated that they are not interested in Loga.
“We are not looking forward to re-employing Logarusic and are yet to receive his application so far. We are instead persuading Williamson to hold on till the end of the season as we search for a suitable replacement”, Omondi told futaa.com
“The club needs enough time to go into the lookout for a suitable replacement that is why we are negotiating with Williamson to still be with us for the remaining few matches in the season.”
All things considered, this seems the most logical way to approach this issue especially since the news of Williamson’s departure was rumoured to have thoroughly demoralized the players. In fact their lackadaisical display in Kigali can be partially attributed to the news.
However given that Gor Mahia officials have a penchant for contradicting each other, we can never what what the club will do next.
Logarusic at Simba
Loga’s record at the Dar es Salaam based side has been far from impressive. He took over from Frenchman Patrick Liewig when Simba were still in contention to win the league. But he led them to 4th place behind Yanga, Mbeya City and Azam. A fourth place finish for a well funded team that has won the league over twenty times is unacceptable.
During his stint at Simba, Loga coached in 21 matches, winning 8, losing 8 and drawing 5, also an unacceptable for a club used to dominating in Tanzania.
Indiscipline
Loga is said to have been fired due to his penchant for insulting players and even officials. In fact several months ago, Ugandan defender Joseph Owino almost quit Simba complaining about Loga’s insults. He was finally fired after Simba lost to Zesco of Zambia 3-0 in a friendly match. Sources close to the club say that Loga was involved in a heated argument with players after the match blaming them of showing a dismal display during the match. Interestingly, his firing comes only a few days after Simba signed Raphael Kiongera, one of Loga’s favourite players. In fact the Zesco match was Kiongera’s debut.
There are other coaches whose name has been mentioned as possible replacements
Zico
Among the coaches who have been rumoured as possible replacements for Williamson should he leave are former coach Zedekiah Otieno Zico who now coaches SoNy. Early in 2014, it even appeared Zico would return to the club as Williamson’s assistant. But Zico likely will not leave his job at SoNy for a job that might last only 5 months.
Stanley Okumbi
After Logarusic unceremoniously left Gor Mahia last year, Stanley Okumbi’s name as a possible successor was on everyone‘s lips and it is believed his club Mathare United blocked the move. Okumbi is currently the youngest coach in the KPL and has a knack of rebuilding successful squads every season. This is what he has done at Mathare United where he has been for the last three seasons
But if Mathare blocked his move last year, they will certainly block it this time around.
Luc Eymael
The former AFC Leopards coach has always expressed a desire to come back into the KPL after his sudden exit last season. After leaving Leopards, he went to Rayon Sport of Rwanda where he left after being suspended for two years for misconduct.
He started well at AFC but soon ran afoul of officials and would soon leave in a huff. And with the financial instability at Gor Mahia now, this does not seem an optimal choice.
Financial Status
Having said all that, the biggest impediment to the club’s ability to hire a good coach is the financial instability occasioned by KRA. This is something the club officials do not seem to have done much to resolve. It is now 5 months later and we still do not know if any agreement has been reached with KRA. Meanwhile initiatives like 350100 and the membership recruitment drive have fallen by the wayside due to lack of followup.
WHEN THING WERE REALLY BAD SOME BLOGGERS CASTIGATED US AS ‘FULL OF NEGATIVES’……….EVEN GFC 105, NAKUMATT, MUMBI NATIONAL COULD HAVE DONE WELL IN CECAFA. THE QUESTION TO EC IS WHYD DIDNT WE SAVE OUR FACE BY SENDING TUSKER OR SOFAPAKA TO THE TOURNAMENT. IT IS TURNING OUT TO BE AN EMBARRASSMENT FOR KOGALLO !!!!
WE DONT NEED A COACH AT THE MOMENT , MATTERS HAVE REACHED ‘ROCK BOTTOM’ AT THIS ONCE GREAT CLUB…I SUGGEST WE CALL STAKEHOLDER MEETING TO ADDRESS THIS ‘FIVE POINT ISSUE’
1. WHAT IS THE ACTUAL STATUS OF THE FINANCIAL POSITION OF THE CLUB.
2. WHAT IS THE ACTUAL STATUS OF THE PLAYERS WELFARE AND ALLOWANCES.
3. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RETAIN THE LEAGUE WITHIN THE NEXT 9 OR 10 GAMES.
4. WHAT IS THE LONG TERM PLAN FOR THE CLUB
5. HOW FAR HAS THE DEBATE TO RELOCATE GOR MAHIA TO KISUMU STADIUM GONE .
EVERY THING IS ABOUT MONEY…..IF THIS ISSUES ARE NOT ADDRESSED WE CAN AS WELL FORGET ABOUT GOR MAHIA AND MOVE ON WITH OUR BELOW PAR PLAYERS!!!
THIS CLUB HAS EXITED FROM ALL MAJOR CUP TOURNAMENTS IN 2014 IN EMBARRASSING FASHION AND OUR COACH ? NO WORDS , GOOD RIDDANCE , WE CAN SAVE A PORTION OF HIS SALARY TO PAY OUTSTANDING PLAYER ALLOWANCES.
thank u 4 highlighting logas performance at simba.Some of us have these false belief that loga has a midas touch,he’s like manna frm heaven.Personally i dnt belive in RECYCLING.It makes one believe in the past instead of the future,bcoz so & so was gud then,he can stil be gud now.over 90% turns out to be a flop or do not perform like they did b4.Loga is a gud coach bt i think he can buckle under pressure,blaming everybody 4poor results except himself.LETS TRY JBO,ligi now ni 50-50.
Loga is being sabotaged at simba,those Tanzanians dont like kenyans playing in their country,kenyan players in Uganda and Tanzania always face frustrations,they dont last long there.
Anyway something serious needs to be done.I still believe Loga is the right man for Gor now.
Jakoyo my brother, can you please arrange for a meeting? Iets target only 10,000 people and bring each only 1000/-. We will have gotten 10,000,000 to last this season. I can help in promoting the event. We can exchange emails to make this a success.
Kimanzi has just given a warning shot,he says they are in this thing to win the league,says kogalo are just worthy competitors and the notion of defending champions is neither here nor there.
As a said before we have to win atleast 7 matches of our remaining games starting with Bandari this weekend.
Gor shud take part in the tournament but trying to hoodwink the public that the can win is the mistake. not with the mentality these players display. it’s very clear that this team does not have the fight to win even the premier league live alone cecafa and i do not think it’s about finance. it’s about coach and wether his charges believe and are willing to implement what he says. There are reasons why coaches like Wenger do well with what many coaches would consider as average players yet finish the league always at the top levels. given the state of mind of this team even scholari will get them nowhere unless they start believing in themselves. they need to know what it takes to achieve this. BW is not necessarily bad for gor even though we critisize him but he is getting lost in GIVING REASONS(excuses) instead of sorting out the real problems. for example why is defence positioning poor and why is passing so third rate. one day these guys will blame their football boots. gor is in a position to beat these teams and it has nothing to do with money, EC, co-operative union or Logarusic. football like any other sport is about winning ie if it is your intention to be recognised in this world. its about winning. ofcourse even barcelona will be beaten once in a while but at the end of the day they win, win, win and win again.
Precisely,ask anyone now and he/she will tell you gor are not in good shape.the flow is not there at all,the team is disjointed right from jerry.
As much as we have issues locally we willvstill prevail. Tusker, sofapaka etc will still outplay us but in the end we come out victors. The reason for this is that we have the winning mentality, at least locally. As much as our game is as guarded as our coach I have the faith that we will prevail locally. I’m just wondering why we are whinning instead of playing our part to cover the shortcomings of the team. Climbing the roof and shouting how our team is not good is just arming the opponents. The other teams must also be having internal issues otherwise the gap between us and them could be huge. By the way our local opponents fear us because theyvare never sure which gor team will play them due to our issues.
we nerd to acknowledge that the depattures have affected us big but by the grace of God we are still in it. And through HIS name we shall conquer whatever man places before us. Personally I still believe that we shall pip Tusker to the title. And as a family we all need to believe and start working on it
Ei,we have to win games against Bandari,Sony,KCB,Chemelil,city stars,Mathare,muhoroni youth and KRA.
I’ve no doubt Gor have a database of coaches from the past interviews. All serious teams Simba, Brazil etc have named coaches within a few days of the former coaches resigning.COME EC BE SERIOUS FOR ONCE.
Simba have just completed talks with Zambian coach Patrick Phiri to take over from sacked Croatian coach zdravko Logarusic, Bongostaz.Blogspot.com reports.
Can’t we similarly think outside the box, our next coach must be a professional who is above/outside the local soccer intrigues/politics not necessarily a muzungu.
@ Papa thats a great idea but its a one off.
We need structured serious membership whereby members have clearly defined rights and obligations.
Lets put GM & football first.
That said we can’t continue going to draw water from the river with a straw basket surely that’s what the current membership drive & paybill 350100 are!