FKF changing tune on Benni McCarthy eight months after his appointment?

It is funny how quickly things can change in football.

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On a particular afternoon in early March, Kenya ushered in a treasured man with every manner of pop and colour, but a few months in, he is staring right at the proverbial bottom of the barrel, over him a bus that he has been thrown under.

If one needed to see what fading ecstasy looked like, then parts of a Tuesday night statement from FKF President Hussein Mohammed did the job.

"Truth be told, today is a bad day in office," Mohammed wrote on his social media accounts, referring to the results of two Kenyan sides - Harambee Stars and Junior Stars - who had, in fair terms, both failed to win on their travels.

A striking message on his post, made just minutes after Harambee Stars' horror show against Senegal, in part read: "To play and compete against the best in the world requires deliberate investment in a serious and professional technical team and player development programs.

We will review our policies, operational procedures and key performance indicators of all staff starting from the grassroots and working our way to all national teams."

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Simply read, "I am not happy with your output, and you might be off my radar soon enough."

Taking one of Mohammed's highlighted results, a debate begins.

On one hand, an 8-0 mauling of the national senior side is so embarrassing to not bat an eye at, but on the other hand, a question on what your targets are.

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During that aforementioned early March afternoon, Mohammed, just months in at the helm of FKF, presented a man he pleaded patience for, but on the latest evidence, looks to be doing the opposite.

When Benni McCarthy was introduced and presented like the star he is, words like "huge commitment and big step" came from the FKF supremo, who on top of handing the South African a solid two-year deal, labeled him as a "Pan Africanist, one of our own sons, whose experience will have an impact not only on the national team, but also the youth and future generations to come."

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Months later, that confidence in a significant staff member seems shaken, and while a worst defeat in 47 years cannot be brushed under the carpet, logic would dictate that humiliation was not the least of expectations.

Not when your squad carries little to no top-level experience, as compared to the star-studded former African champions, who days ago troubled powerhouses Brazil.

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Which all comes to what matters for the federation - a real go at the unknown, or the well-trodden path of being lost in mixed-messaging, and it is everyone's fault but us.

A two-year contract for McCarthy essentially placed him in line for the home 2027 AFCON, and if that was the remit, then the aftermath of games that show one how big a chasm exists to being a contender ought to be treated as painful learning processes, rather than a knee-jerk need to twist or pull the plug on an incredibly daring pet project.

From the outside, that looks like the ideal modus operandi, unless there is more than meets the eye.