Ghost lost the Stars dressing room

Sacked Harambee Stars head coach Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee had fallen out with nearly all the players in camp besides infuriating Football Kenya Federation (FKF) with his antics and general conduct in national team set up.

Just as shockingly as FKF hired Ghost to take charge of the national team while maintaining his clownish job in a morning radio show, the federation caught many by surprise in getting rid of the celebrated tactician in a dark night communique to the media.

Respected for being the first local coach to qualify Kenya to the Africa Cup of Nations his return to the national team after a decade’s hiatus from a top coaching role sharply divided opinion.

It did not take long for the rustiness of Ghost to come to the fore. Firstly, a video emerged online of national team players in camp singing birthday songs to the coach’s radio co-host.

It looked awkward but not a great many have the temerity to question Ghost, majorly due to the accolades he amassed both at club and national level. Clearly he was way out of his depth though.   

His showbiz approach and sometimes casual way to things did not go down well with players and FKF officials. A number of players quickly got fed up with the head coach’s scolding when they could point out several flaws in Ghost’s conduct.

The king was naked.

His style of play was not pleasing to the eye, a sharp variance from the swashbuckling show of the Francis Kimanzi era.

The weird substitution of Lawrence Juma before half hour mark was a culmination of sour relations that had started days before Kenya played against Uganda in Nairobi.

A player who was in the team disclosed that the coach had dressed down a section of the team with Juma bearing most of the brunt in the lead up to twin 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

As a result, Juma alongside other who has brilliantly played for the national team and their clubs in the concluded season were not in their usual elements leading to the deeply disappointing outcomes.

A source within FKF disclosed to Mozzart that the coach had totally lost the players respect over behaviors he could not mention.

“It was going to get worse for the national team if Ghost was allowed to continue. Thus the change which shocked everyone else but FKF insiders,” offered the source

The unceremonious ouster of former skipper Victor Wanyama from the national team also left many perplexed if not bewildered as the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder racks up impressive statistics in the Major League Soccer.

“His fate was decided about four days prior to the communique sent to the media. What I don’t understand is why they had to make the announcement at night,” the FKF insider posed

The federation started sounding out Ghost’s possible replacements days before he was ousted with an announcement likely in the coming days.