Mathare will not be relegated, sacked Salim says

Immediate former Mathare United coach Salim Ali believes that his former club will not be relegated despite sitting at the bottom of the FKF Premier League table with a paltry seven points. 

Ali was shown the door on Monday after a poor that that saw the team accumulate seven points after 14 rounds of league matches. Former Wazito and KCB FC head coach Frank Ouna have since replaced him at the dugout. 

In an interview with KTN, Ali said that he is confident the team will remain in the top league. He says the calibre of players in the team will help the Slum Boys avoid the drop. 

"Mathare United will not go down, I am not worried at all. I know the quality of players in the team, they will help the club retain its top-flight status. But again at the end of the season, they will lose more players, even Jose Mourinho cannot succeed at Mathare United because we keep losing players," he said. 

Despite not being happy with the manner in which he was kicked out of the club, the tactician said he will be happy if the new coaching team manages to stabilize the club. 

"Mathare United is bigger than all of us, Mathare is bigger than Salim and all of us. If the decision they made (sacking him) will help the team avoid relegation, then it's okay because this is our team,” he said." For me this is like a burden taken off my shoulder, I feel relieved," he added. 

Salim lifted a lid on what he believes has been the main challenge the team has been facing over the years. He says high player turnover is to blame for the struggles that the team has faced in recent years. 

“We have been losing players year in year out, every season we lose 7-10 key players to other teams. From 2018 we lost 31 key players because of financial issues. Kevin Kimani went to Wazito, Roy Okal moved to Sofapaka, Andrew Juma moved to KCB, David Owino decamped to KCB just to name a few. These are players that we nurtured, some went for free while some we received some pay. This is a big issue because it’s season easy to get players who can replace the likes of Kimani," he continued. 

Ouna's first assignment at the dugout will be against KCB on Wednesday afternoon.