The club is understood to have agreed to sign a few but experienced players to help them chase the league title
AFC Leopards coach Anthony Kimani has revealed the kind of players he would like to work with in future.
Kimani, who took charge of the team in December after serving as Casa Mbungo’s assistant, has identified the characteristics his preferred players should possess, as he hopes to steer AFC Leopards back to a winning path.
“We look at a couple of factors but one main issue is to see if the player is talented, whether their technical abilities will help the club and the tactical adaptation to the club’s way of playing,” Kimani told the club’s Online TV.
“Level of discipline and attitude is very important because in the end there are very talented players out there and so discipline makes a great difference for me.
“Discipline is something I always do not want to overlook because you sometimes get into match situations where talent alone does not matter but the mentality is much needed.”
Kimani also spoke about how Elvis Rupia came and helped the club after his January arrival.
“[Elvis] Rupia came at the right time just when we needed him the most after we lost our top scorer [John Makwatta] when he decided to move to join a team in Zambia,” the youthful coach said.
“We needed a player who would come in and score the goals for us something I think he has done.
“Together with the AFC Leopards technical bench, we are looking at which players we are going to sign and we have identified a few we think can bring a lot of value to the club.”
After scoring 13 goals in half a season, Makwatta joined Zesco United in the January transfer window.
According to Kimani, Leopards will sign only a few, but experienced, players in order to blend with their youthful players.
“We have decided to go the experience way and those who will be coming in are very experienced ones,” revealed the former Harambee Stars full-back.
“That will add the much-needed experience to the current team and if everything goes according to plan, AFC Leopards are going to be a strong team come next season.
“We bought young players who would not come straight to the starting team and have a huge impact but I am pretty sure in the next two or three seasons, these players are going to do very well for the club.
“But it is always good to strike the balance between the experienced and young players and that is going to be very important going forward.”
In the January transfer window, Ingwe signed very young players, some of them straight from high school, and Kimani believes their time to feature prominently for the local giants is imminent.
“We have got Austin [Odhiambo] who was very outstanding this past season. [Omar] Somobwana has given a good account of himself and [Dan] Sunguti has shown what he can do when given an opportunity,” the 2012 Cecafa Senior Challenge finalist added.
“We will try as much to see these players try and get enough playtime moving forward.
“AFC Leopards are a big club and there is a lot of pressure when it comes to playing for them and so we are going to be very careful about how we introduce them to the first team.
“Of course, we will not throw them into the deep end until when we feel they are very ready to take on the pressure of playing for AFC Leopards.”
When the season was cancelled in May, AFC Leopards were sixth on the KPL table.
Be the first to comment