Nairobi News

Tusker coach Robert Matano says he doesnt fear the sack.

Matano, an experienced coach in the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League, was responding to media reports indicating he could face the sack in the coming days.

The report in the Nation quoted Tusker chairman Charles Gacheru saying he was ready to sack Matano,  in the event he loses to Gor Mahia in a league match at the weekend.

The all stakes clash against these two top sides is slated for the Moi International Sports, Centre, Kasarani, on October 22, 2023. The clash will also be televised on Azam TV.

“This is Robert Matano, I’m Robert Matano, This Robert Matano. I don’t succumb to threats,” the experienced coach vented as he repeated his name three times.

“I don’t work with ultimatums; I don’t fear being sacked. He can do it even now. What will he do to me if I decide to leave before Sunday?” posed Matano, who is nicknamed the Lion on the local football scene.

In a bare knuckle attack on Gacheru, his boss, Matano, 59, said he had undergone enough frustrations at the club and even if both parties are to part ways, so be it because it will not be the end of his expansive coaching career.

“After winning the league in 2021, I was given a six-month contract. At the start of last season, I was given a two-month contract with a reason that my performance was being assessed again. This season I’m being given ultimatums again? “he lamented insisting this reporter must put down his sentiments the way they are as he fears nobody.

He wondered what will happen if he beats Gor Mahia then loses the matches that follow if it is only one match which is supposed to decide his future at the Ruaraka based club.

Matano asserted that in the past three years Tusker have always started the league at a slow pace but end up gaining their footing and bagging the title or even challenging it to the last match.

“The league has just started and it is a marathon. Why am I being threatened? I can even decide to leave because I’m not in that category of people who work under threats. Matano has left Tusker before and even if it happens this time, it wouldn’t be strange,” he asserted in an angry tone.

He, however, said the new players signed by the club had not gelled and that was the reason for the unconvincing performance but showed confidence that the team will improve.

Tusker have collected eight points from six rounds of matches and are seventh on the FKF-PL log.

Posta Rangers lead the log on 16 points, four more than second placed Gor Mahia.

After Gacheru’s comments, a section of Gor Mahia fans went frenzy on social media saying Matano fate is as well as sealed insisting the brewers can’t beat K’Ogalo, as Gor are famously referred to in footballing circles.

The Gor fans bragged thie team defeated arch rivals AFC Leopards in a result that sent ex-Leopards coach Tom Juma packing, Matano could as well be next on the queue.

Matano is the most successful local coach locally having won four FKF-PL titles with Tusker and one with Sofapaka in 2009.