NAIROBI, Kenya, January 14 -Thika United coach, John Kamau, has called upon Harambee Stars boss, Adel Amrouche, to blend experienced and upcoming players in his squad, for future development of football in the country.
Kamau who guided the national Under-20 youth team to the finals of Cosafa Cup, was speaking on Tuesday at Thika Municipal Stadium during the unveiling of six players who joined the Juja based club ahead of the 2014 Kenyan Premier League (KPL) Season.
“Apart from the vision of the sponsor, I have my own targets which are always realistic and as a coach, I have a lot of belief. For us to develop football, we must embrace the youth and there is no short cut.
“When the head coach picks the national team, I think it’s always wise to also include young talent. I have decided to go for youth since they know nothing about the premier league, so when I develop them, I’m also growing,” the coach who led Thika to seventh last season, said after the team’s training.
Kamau has signed three experienced and a similar number of untested talent namely; Kenyan international, Moses Arita, who rejoined the club from Sony Sugar, former Karurturi Sports custodian Mike Wanyika, keeper Hamza Muwonge, from Uganda, forward Timothy Ludda, and defender Daniel Ojara, and central midfielder Samuel Mwanje both also from Uganda.
The coach who has been in the club for three years, stressed his main aim was to lift at least a trophy and see more of his charges play in the national team at senior and youth level.
“I learnt a lot from last season’s performance. We reached the Top-Eight finals and coming from a team that is developing talent, I think we are in the right direction.
“This year, the strategy is to expand our style of play, despite our pitch not being the best. I’m looking forward to see in all games that we play, our possession is above 50 percent,” he continued.
The Brookside backed club open their KPL campaign against former champions, Tusker FC, at home and the coach is concerned about the state of the Thika Municipal pitch that is in deplorable condition.
“It’s a big shame, since this is the fifth year and nothing has been done in our stadium, recently we saw Machakos Governor, Dr. Alfred Mutua, building a stadium in two months which hosted some of Cecafa matches, why cant that be done in our County?.
“I have won many games away rather than at home, so I challenge Kiambu Governor, William Kabago, to refurbish the pitch because if we have a good stadium, teams from Nairobi will use this ground to decongest the Capital and that will be a great benefit to the County.
“For now we are improving the fitness level and tactical aspect and if I look at our first match, all the teams are worthy to give us competition, so we will take on Tusker as other teams, but I respect them since they have the most experienced coach who taught me,” the coach narrated.
He added international forward Francis Kahata, will leave the club only to join overseas teams, but not any other KPL side.
“I started coaching Kahata, when he was very young, so when the right time comes, we will release him only if he is going to play in Europe. We did the same to Clifton Miseso, who chose not to renew his contact and opted for Sofapaka.”
Arita, who makes a comeback to the team, was pleased to rejoin his old time club, and vowed to give his best and see the team register good results.
“I’m very happy to be back at a team which I played for long and I’m looking forward to score more goals this season and encourage the upcoming players.
Youngster Ludda, said his target is to fight for a place in the first 18 players.
“I want to thank Thika, for giving me this opportunity to realize my dream in playing for a premier league club. I’m sure I will convince the coach for him to give me a chance.”
