Former Man City coach slams Firat for subbing Clarke Oduor after 20 minutes

Sub in, 20 minutes, sub out. This was the case of England-based Clarke Oduor last week on Tuesday when Kenya lost 0-1 to South Sudan at the Kasarani Stadium.

The Bradford City player was brought in at the hour mark for the seemingly injured Masoud Juma but was then taken out 20 minutes later with Kakamega Homeboyz's striker Moses Shumah taking up his place.

In his post match remarks, coach Engin Firat revealed that he took off the winger because he seemed a bit afraid and played like he had 'brakes on'.

“When he came on, I had the feeling that he was a little afraid. It’s as if he has a brake. He needs to let it go and I believe we will have a good player on the side with him. He has real capacity and it is good that he is now playing more often in his club as an attacking midfielder," Firat said in his post-match interview.

However, the comments by the Turk tactician did not auger well with Bradford City's coach Mark Hughes who revealed to English publication Telegraph and Argus that he actually thought Oduor was injured, thus the substitution.

He went o to call the substitution by Firat 'strange', but remained grateful that the player was not injured as earlier thought. It is Hughes who has given Clarke a new-lease of life, with the tactician rating the Kenyan highly.

“I thought he was injured. That would be your normal take on it. I was sending texts and trying to get some information. But that wasn’t the case. The manager decided to take him after 20 minutes.

Clarke was scratching his head about it. He’s not going to say anything against his national team manager but I probably could. It seemed a strange one because it doesn’t usually happen. But the important thing for us is that he wasn’t injured. He wasn’t in a position that he had to come off, so he’ll be fine,” Hughes said.

'He needs to risk': Firat explains situation leading to Clarke Oduor's substitution

Hughes went on to add that he would not step on the way for a player who wants to represent his country, saying that it is a 'fortunate' thing for the Bantams to have one of their own playing at the international level.

“You understand it. I would never stand in the way of players playing for their national team. It’s not something that you can do. You’ve got to allow them the opportunity and then they make decisions further down the line about whether or not their commitment is really that strong if they are not getting the game time that they feel. It’s very difficult to turn down your country. It is what it is. We should look at it that we’re fortunate that we’ve got a guy playing at international level. That’s a good thing for us overall. But we get the benefit of him when he’s not with his international team so we have to be comfortable with that,” he added.