Barely a week after sending Jacob "Ghost" Mulee packing, Football Kenya Federation on Sunday unveiled Turkish tactician Engin Firat as the new Harambee Stars head coach.
FKF honcho, Nick Mwendwa, said Firat has been handed a two-month contract with express instructions to fire Harambee Stars to the apex of the Group E in the World Cup qualifiers.
Firat, 51, rides into the scene with a wealth of experience to draw on, having previously guided 18 teams, including Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt and Turkish giants Fenerbahce. His colourful career took off in 1997 at German side, Horst Hrubesch Samsunspor, where he served as an assistant coach
However, he may have to shake off some rust he might have gathered at home after resigning from his role as Moldova coach early in the year.
In Moldova, Firat presided over 11 matches, crashing in nine and sharing spolis in the rest. Even more telling is the fact that Moldova place 175 in the latest Fifa rankings where Kenya are 102nd.
That notwithstanding, Firat holds on to the conviction he is the much awaited messiah to sail the Stars to the promised land.
"I'm very excited, very motivated. I know that people expect a lot from me. I'm ready for this challenge. At the expiry of the two months, we shall see what the future holds and I can decide from there," said Firat.
He said he already knows the current crop of Harambee Stars players too well like the back of his hand and, as such, he won't experience any sort of pressure registering some positive results.
"We are now in digital era, where we can easily get the details of every player. When I was approached by the president, I checked about the team before I gave an answer, I know a lot about the team and a lot about the quality of the players.
"You can't know about the character of individual players but the tactical, physical and you can always update yourself. What I need to know is the character of the players and how each of them behaves under pressure."
On his part, Mwendwa said FKF had picked the right man to occupy the hot seat which has already claimed a record six tacticians in a span of five years.
"The coach knows so much about our team and players because he has done his homework well enough. We will work with him in the coming weeks to help him know more about us.
"We want to count on his experience and his football knowledge. I can assure you I have been with many but haven't met many with the kind of knowledge he has," said Mwendwa.
Mwendwa explained why they arrived at the curious decision to hire Firat for only two months.
"For me, it's not about the number of coaches we've had. It's about the project we have and how the coach fits in the project.
"Now we are at a point where we have a team which Firat can change based on what he sees. We feel if we have somebody of his calibre and his knowledge then we can go top of that group, and that's why we agreed to work with him for two months. We wanted to complete our World Cup assignment first."
