Ogai welcomes new role at Darajani Gogo, sets sights on team improvement

Newly appointed National Super League side Darajani Gogo head coach Paul Ogai has welcomed his new capacity at the club and has vowed to guide the club to success despite a dismal start to the season.

Until his appointment, Ogai was the club's technical director, a position he served for barely four months, though he was largely inactive as he was pursuing his CAF B coaching course.

The widely traveled coach took over the reins at Darajani Gogo, replacing Caleb Aringa, who stepped down after posting a series of poor results; going winless since the season commenced, will be assisted by former Gusii United coach Andrew Ongwae.

The former Kibera Black Stars head coach, who until his appointment to the technical director position was assistant to David Ouma at Sofapaka, has welcomed his new role, terming it as where he belongs, and is looking forward to getting the club back to success.

"I am happy to be back at coaching after some time off the touchline. This is where I belong, and I feel motivated to be back and raring to go yet again," Ogai said.

The soft-spoken gaffer also admits that it will be an uphill task, but he is ready for the challenge ahead in order to help the club get to winning ways.

"I understand the task ahead of me, which is an uphill one, but I am confident enough to steer the team to greater heights. We haven't won a match or found the back of the net, and these are some of the areas that we have to quickly fix to inject some stability and confidence back into the team."

Ogai, who was tasked with improving last season's performance, is aware of the expectations and is ready to steer the Darajani community-based club in Kibera to a better finish than last season.

"Going by my experience and the number of teams I have handled, I understand there are going to be lots of expectations from the management and, equally, the fans, who will be looking forward to the team registering positive results going forward. However, I understand the situation at hand because football is a game of expectations, and hopefully I will be able to find a way through it."

Gogo did well in their inaugural season at the second-tier league and performed extremely beyond expectations. But as fate would have it, the club lost a couple of key players.

Ogai hopes the new faces get to settle in time and help the team realize its potential.

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"When you perform beyond expectations, other top clubs will come calling for your best performers, and Gogo wasn't exempted from the mass exodus. I hope the newly recruited players get to settle in quickly and help the team achieve this season's targets," concluded Ogai.

Gogo will be in action on Saturday when they take on MFC, which will be coach Ogai's first match in charge of the team.