Is coaches sacking remedy for poor performance?

JUST two games into the 2024/25 Premier League season, the trend of sacking coaches has already come into play, with Azam and Coastal Union parting ways with their managers.

This early shake-up has surprised many, as critics argue that it is premature for these clubs to make such drastic decisions, given the long season ahead that might still offer opportunities for improvement.

Typically, when a team struggles, the coach and their support staff are the first to face scrutiny.

They are responsible for the team’s performance, spending extensive time with the players and making crucial decisions about tactics and strategy.

This is applied throughout the world hence the reason a head coach can be fired at any moment of the league as long as the recorded results are no longer satisfactory to the management or supporters.

But frankly speaking, many things can contribute to the team’s dwindling performance and sometimes, problems are created from the management level itself but nobody cares hence the blame goes directly to the head of the technical team staff Imagine that you are a well-trained coach at a certain club and you are equipped with the required papers that fully qualify you to take charge of the concerned team and you apply whatever knowledge you have in your mind to drill the players you have.

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In other times, you take extra time out of your normal schedule to train your charges on what they should do during matches, but when the final whistle sounds, the outcome is usually not the one you intended.

Yes, this can really be an upset for you, bearing in mind the fact that you have done everything within your means to help the team move forward but things are not working out and the pressure from outside is growing for you to step down due to poor results being recorded.

Here, there is nothing more you can do than just waiting for the red button to be pressed by the team owners for you to exit and pave way for others to try their fortune.

Former Simba Coach, Abdallah Kibaden commented that in most cases, when coaches are fired early in the season, the concerned clubs usually suffer a lot as they have to undergo another period to learn the format of the new coach.

“Both Azam and Coastal Union, the fired coaches were the ones who were with the team during their pre-season drills meaning that they know each player very well in their squad. “This means when they are sacked, the normal organisation of their respective squads is highly affected until the new trainer comes in to stabilise the situation and this does not happen overnight,” he said.

He therefore urged the two clubs to take ample time when searching for new coaches to fill the vacuum insisting that if they do not observe this, then they will also not be assured of staying for a long time. Indeed, football is a crazy game in such a way that a coach can be fired and when a new one comes in, the team can instantly transform and begin to do well in terms of getting tangible result.

When this happens, everyone is satisfied and congratulations are directed to those who made the decision to let go the previous coach simply because they are having better times with their team. Now, it should be remembered that both Azam and Coastal Union had the responsibilities to represent the country in CAF Champions League (CAF CL) and CAF Confederation Cup (CAF CC) respectively.

It is vividly clear that both Youssouph Dabo at Azam and David Ouma at Coastal Union were shown marching orders basing on the performance shown at the international level.

For Azam, the expectations from the public are always high as they are eager to see massive investment made at the club go hand in hand with the achievements on the pitch.

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Had they managed to stamp an aggregate triumph over APR and pass through into the second preliminary round of the champions league, Dabo could still be with the Chamazi based outfits up to this moment.

However, after being eliminated in the first preliminary round of the CAF CL and registering a barren draw in their season opener against JKT Tanzania plus pressure from the public, there was no way the Senegalese coach could have escaped the trap.