•City owner has appointed veteran journalist Patrick Korir as the club’s Chief Executive Officer
•Korir said he prefers a foreign technical director who will oversee football matters including age group teams.
In a bid to find their way back to the Kenyan Premier League, Nairobi City will ring a massive surgery to their playing unit with 15 players being shown the door and more than ten being brought on board.
City Stars, who were axed from the top flight 2016, have had their quest to punch their way to the KPL thwarted. However, the club which came under new management in May, have made their intentions of signing quality players to meet the elusive target known.
The Kawangware-based outfit, whose major undoing has been dry coffers, was acquired by Jonathan Jackson, a Kenyan-schooled Briton whose input helped them to narrowly escape the drop as they finished nine points above the red line.
The tycoon, who has interests in Real Estate, has appointed veteran journalist Patrick Korir as the club’s Chief Executive Officer. Korir has already identified the weaknesses in the squad among other things hence the massive surgery.
“Patrick arrived and was able to identify the weaknesses and consequently recommended how we could strengthen it. We have done some patching up of the club in terms of skilled talent and injected financial resources into the club in a bid to make sure players have salaries and allowances which is very important for morale.”
Korir intimated that City will be forced to let go, several players, if they are to turn around their fortunes in their campaign to return to the Kenya Premier League next season.
Korir said the current unit, which scored 48 and conceded 59 goals in 35 out of 38 ties played last season, needed a massive shake-up for them to realise their KPL dream. He also expressed his preference for a foreign technical director who will oversee football matters including age group teams.
“That is very telling. The statistics are not balanced in the team and there is a problem from the midfield backwards. We need to revamp those positions (midfield, defence and goalkeeping) to be able to keep more clean sheets and get more goals to survive. Along the way, we scouted players who we think if they are on our side, we will be able to stop shipping these goals as we did in the just-ended campaign.