Kwara United Woes, Whose Fault?

By Billiameen Obafunsho

When the Nigeria Premier League started in January, hopes were high, every football loving person in the state believed the team's sojourn back in the apex division will be fruitful as delivering a continental ticket was on the lips of all and sundry.

This was after enduring a torrid end to their NNL campaign in which the Kwara darling team and Ranchers Bees became entangled in a boardroom promotional battle following violence in the both the league tie in Kaduna and replay in Abuja. This evidently affected the Harmony Boys preparation towards the Premier league as they got the Nigeria Football Federation nod late while the Samson Unualel technical crew and the club's management also parted ways, giving way to a new crew with Tunde Abdulrahman as the arrow head.

Week 17 into the season and it is evident that Kwara United's position on the log is pathetic going by the number of games played. This has raised a lot of unanswered questions on why a team that started the campaign so well now drops down weekly on the table.

Garnering five points in the first three games was a good start any team will hope for going by the difficult atmosphere of the Nigeria league. Fortunately, however various efforts by the NFF and the League Management Company (LMC) has since made the league attractive with away wins and draws recorded every week, making the season the most unpredicatable in recent years.

To this end, for any club to finish well on the log, picking points on the road added to the home points is very essential. Unfortunately, Kwara United's away records have been very poor while vital home points are also being dropped.

Harvesting 16 points from 16 matches is a poor record by all standard, picking just two points in a possible ten in their last six games is also not acceptable and if things are not done to urgently to arrest the situation, the team's position at the end of the season might not be anything to write home about.

Some weeks back, the club's management issued a three match ultimatum to the crew following recent poor performance. According to the General Manager, Alhaji Haruna Maigidansanma, failure to pick seven points in the next three games will result into sacking. The team has since played the three games(2-0 away loss to Bayelsa United, 2-3 loss to Enyimba and a scoreless away draw to Taraba). Maigidansanma said the management will not settle for anything less than the target of playing in the continent at the end of the season, hence the decision to read a riot act to the coaches.

On Monday however, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports, Mrs Rhoda Ajiboye announced the indefinate suspension of the technical Adviser, Abdulrahman while his Chief Coach, Tunde Sanni has been told to take charge immediately coupled with all the members of the Coaching crew being placed on half salary. This was a swift reaction to last sunday's home defeat to Sharks FC of Porthacourt which compounded the team's woes while the Supporters applauded the away side after the encounter.

The Questions however are what is responsible for the team's dismal performance?, is sacking the technical adviser the solution?, has Kwara United recruited well? And finally, is a continental ticket still achievable?. These needs answers and this piece will partly do justice to the issues raised and will definately proposed a way forward for the state's darling team.

Kwara United's disappointing outings of late can be attributed to a lot of factors that links each other. To start with, technically, the team seems deficient because in most of their home games, they play like a flock of sheep without direction and its difficult to fathom a particular game pattern adopted.

One can say this is perculiar to most teams in the league but even at that, teams like Heartland, Kano Pillars, Enyimba and even Sharks have prosecuted their games here in ilorin with a dinstictive style.

As regards parting ways with the technical adviser, the decision of the government is a welcome development to a large extent going by the recent poor results. Although, it is an occurrence in the football world that when a team is doing badly, the coach/tehnical crew bears the brunch and since the Maigidansanma led management believe the gaffer is not good enough and relieved of his duty at this stage, then so be it. However they need to share in the blame too. This is because, it was their decision to settle for him in the first place.

In the course of employing a new gaffer, the management must have seen that he is a lot better than his predecessor and not the other way round. The new coach should be bringing new things to the team and it is believed that the management saw this and other qualities in the former Wikki tourist coach before settling for him.

Placing Sanni in charge was also a good decision although looking at in another angle, some sections of the fans might prefer sending the whole crew packing since they were all responsible in a way for the team's dismal technical abilities.

Also, the development is not totally unexpected looking at what transpired before the coaches were contracted. Sanni(who have handled the team three years ago) also applied for the top job but along the line was asked to serve in the first team Coach capacity while Abdulrahman was employed as the Technical Adviser and Balogun who worked with the unualel crew was retained as the assistant coach. It is believed that both Abdulrahman and Sanni are egiostic while both have not really got along together and this have really affected the premier league strugglers.

In a chat with a concerned stakeholder who craved anonymity so as to avoid controversy, he attributed the team's recent dismal performances to disaffection in the crew and this could not allow them achieve result even as he called for total restructuring of the team.

He said, "The match against Lobi was bad enough but the one against Enyimba was a very good match. On Sunday they had to lose a very good penalty, lost some very good free kicks. It is very unfortunate. A lot of things could be responsible- disaffection in the coaching crew, disaffection among the management can bring about a kind of psychological bearing on the players.

"Some of them might be thinking that 'after all this coach doesn't like me, they can sack him and let somebody come', some management would say it was not me who brought this coach, they didn't take the coach I brought. So let this one fail so that they can pick my own and things like that.. You can even see supporters cheering up Sharks, gone are the days when supporters would descend on you heavily for daring to beat their team at home.

"The whole thing needs a total overhauling. They must look inward and they must know and do a general overhaul. Look at the league season and bring in some new players". He said

On the issue of recruitment, the management needs to be more open to the club fans and supporters on their policy as regards getting players. Most of the lovers of Kwara United are in the dark as to how players are brought into this club I.e is it through the management or the coach? Either ways, the section responsible for the recruitment have not done well enough going by what other teams parades.

Safe for some few players, majority of the players the team parades can be said not to be in the same league comparable to what the likes of Pillars, Enyimba, Warri Wolves, Giwa, Sunshine stars, Heartland and some others have in their ranks. This is so evident and has really affected their season thus far.

On the part of the government, it has been severally reported on their support to the club both financially and morally as 100percent sign on fees of the players and officials were paid coupled with providing an enabling environment for them to excel.

This means the parent of the club have done and are still doing what is expected of them, therefore the management, coaching crew and players have no excuse not to deliver.

Languishing in the 17th spot with a game in hand(rescheduled tie against Warri Wolves) is not a positive sign no matter how the table is looked at and nursing a continental dream at this stage can be said to be gradually turning into a farce. Thankfully, it is not business as usual in the league, a few away wins and draws, added to home victories(they need to stop dropping vital home points) will definately propel the team back up on the log with a season still a long way to go.

This will ensure the team's survival but qualifying for the continent via the league is in serious doubt except if its done through winning the Federations Cup(they are in the round of 16 against Rangers)

There is no denying the fact that Kwara United is a big brand in the Nigerian league but the team needs to be up there with her comtemporaries. Occupying a bottom half of the table is not where the 'Harmony Boys' belong and the recent results have not gone down well with all stakeholders which has been established earlier while steps must be taken to change the looks of things.

Kwara United's next two remaining games before the end of the first round are against Ifeayi Ubah(away) and Giwa FC. Going by the team's current form, these two fixtures will be uphill tasks and they can't afford to drop more precious points.
Happenings in coming weeks will surely provide more answers and forge a way forward for a club dearly loved by Kwarans while it is left to be seen whether Sanni will be given the job on a full time basis while after digesting this piece, fans, supporters and keen followers of the 'Harmony Boys' will have a lot to say on how to go about ensuring the team's fortune turns around positively.