Villa take gamble on Timbe-Bamweyana-Mugerwa trio
Eyes on the money: SC Villa striker Bashir Mutanda takes on KCCA defender Mustafa Kizza in a league game at Namboole. Sam Timbe (Left) has been handed the mantle to help the Jogoos regain their status in league football. Top right: Simon Mugerwa, bottom right: Douglas Bamweyana. PHOTOS BY EDDIE CHICCO
What you need to know:
- Soccer. SC Villa has opted for a blend of new blood and experience as the 16-time record league champions attempt to resuscitate their season following the untimely departure of Moses Basena, who left at a time when the team is fighting with relegation.
Kampala. An interim committee led by William Nkemba was set up four months ago to manage SC Villa’s transition until the club finds a new president at the end of the year.
The committee was largely expected to handle the club’s administration especially after another former player Moses Basena was handed coaching reigns.
But after indicating last week that he was not ready to continue with his coaching role after the club failed to win any of their first eight games, the interim committee has moved to restructure the coaching department.
Daily Monitor understands that the 16-time record league champions have zeroed down on Sam Timbe, Douglas Bamweyana and Simon Mugerwa for various technical roles in what appears a blend of youth and experience.
Timbe is currently one of the most successful coaches in the region having won the regional Kagame Cup four times as well as league titles in three countries with SC Villa, Atraco (Rwanda) and Young Africans (Tanzania). But he is regarded as out of touch with current trends and was dismissed by Kenyan side Tusker in April after only four months in charge in a country where he also won the domestic cup in 2014 with Sofapaka.
His last coaching role was at Police in 2016 in what was a second stint at the club he led to Cecafa glory in 2006. It was however blighted by disconnect between the Caf license A holder and his players who regarded his approach as outdated. Bamweyana meanwhile also holds a Caf License A and FA Level 2 Football Coaching License (Leicestershire - UK).
He is seen as the man who will take care of the senior team with Timbe as head of technical and is believed to have wowed Villa with a rich CV. He has only had three short coaching spells, one with Proline and two with Express, the last of which was at the start of last season with a W-3, D-1, L-4 record. The former Makerere University coach and head of Sports Science Department is however largely also untested at this level with none of those stints going beyond eight games.
Like Mugerwa, he has also been involved with youth football over the last five years but with the latter standing out for his roles in school and Masaza Cup football.
2018 has been particularly been fruitful for Mugerwa and he is set to travel to Kenya with Buddo SS next week for the continental Copa Cup of Nations tournament. This is after his side defeated Lycée de Kigali to win the East African schools football title and also edged Blessed Sacrament Kimaanya 1-0 to win the national title earlier this year.
