Bearing in mind the kind of relationship Abdallah Mubiru has had with the Vipers SC supremo Lawrence Mulindwa, right from the time he was Fufa president, being sacked never seemed a possibility, at least not in the short term.
Mubiru appeared like he was Mulindwa’s blue-eyed boy. On several occasions Mubiru used his newspaper commentaries to blast anyone, who dared to question or criticize Mulindwa. He was Mulindwa’s loyal steward, whose appointment as head coach of Vipers back in July had been long time coming.
However, that fairytale relationship ended in a sack for Mubiru following Vipers’ 1-2 loss to SC Villa last Saturday in the league, raising questions of what he is going to do next.
Sitting on the periphery, Mubiru will wait for the next coaching opportunity, he said. Since studying a Caf ‘A’ coaching license, Mubiru quit his job as coach of Kibuli SSS.
Yet, it goes without saying that being sacked from Vipers has not placed Mubiru in glory. In fact, it is simply a culmination of how Mubiru’s career has panned out.
In 2011 he was hired by Proline FC, only to be sacked in 2013. But it did not take him long before he could get a new appointment in 2014, as assistant coach to George Nsimbe at KCCA FC.
Mubiru was the anti-thesis of Nsimbe’s usually-soft approach of handling players. He was the disciplinarian, who stepped on a few toes as he tried to get players in line with professional standards. This, it is said, disoriented some KCCA players, who disliked his strictness.
In fact, after Nsimbe left KCCA for Azam FC in Tanzania, Mubiru was elevated to head coach. But the players did not respond enthusiastically to a number of his methodologies, particularly where he opted to train his team to be versatile.
For example, it was during Mubiru’s tenure, that midfielder Ivan Ntege played at right back and left-back Joseph Ochaya as a centre-back.
Inevitably, this disenchanted a section of fans, especially because KCCA failed to defend their league title. They also lost the Uganda cup final to Villa in the 2014/2015 season 0-3.
Mubiru was sacked and replaced by Mike Mutebi, to whom he had been a player in 1997 and an assistant in 2004. And because of that, the two men share a lot in terms of football philosophy, coupled with a deeper sense for technical details and analyses for players.
Given time, as Mubiru intermittently hoped for, he wanted his players to play with a certain degree of intelligence because great footballers are not just about talent, but also other aspects.