Mathare United is one of four teams in the 2017 campaign at greatest risk of getting relegated, but coach Francis Kimanzi remains unperturbed by this.
The former Harambee Stars coach told kpl.co.kethat he expected such a challenge when he retook the job at Mathare and was prepared for it.
“Every time you take a new job you can’t go in expecting the same experience you had in you previous one. When you are working with a team that has a good budget, your ambition will be different from when you are working with a team like Mathare.
“When I took this job at Mathare I knew that I was about to start having a new experience so it is no surprise. I concentrated not on winning the league, but on how I would nurture players and give them a head start in their careers,” the former Tusker coach said.
Mathare have had a difficult season and with four games remaining are placed 15th on the 18-team table with 31 points, six more than bottom placed Muhoroni Youth.
Kimanzi says that he will continue to help his team fight for, not just safety, but a respectable finish.
“Whenever these players win a match you find that they get overexcited, because they are still young. That false confidence now makes them go down again so we lose consistency quite often.
“But I am not scared. The important thing is to ensure they don’t lose games without learning anything from it, whether personal or as a team. I want that every time they get out on the pitch they learn something new.
“Everyone in this team is working hard to improve. In some matches you might find a certain player or a set of players standing out but in the next game a completely different group stands out. Those are the effects of building a team with young players.
“The day all of them will exhibit a good game together, I will know that experience has finally set into the team, which is what we have been aiming for all season.
“But that is now a plan we shall continue with next season,” he said, leaving no doubt he wants to continue with his work at Mathare.
