Forget oversimplified comparisons with Pitso, Mutebi has unfinished business with KCCA

There is always an air of nervous expectancy whenever someone leaves their comfort zone. Your columnist can, with some confidence, hazard a guess that Pitso Mosimane currently encapsulates this sensation. 
After delivering a domestic treble in his eighth season with South African behemoths, Mamelodi Sundowns, Mosimane was deeply conflicted – or would at least have claimed he was – when he had to say his goodbyes.

In a statement confirming his departure, the 56-year-old tactician said he agonised over the decision. He added that although he was manifestly struggling with “pain and sadness”, moving to Egyptian titans, Al Ahly, “will push me out of my comfort zone.” 

It is clear that things could go very badly wrong in Mosimane’s eagerness to put distance between himself and familiar contours. But just as probable is a tilt in his favour. And, with his tactical smarts, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Whatever the outcome, a lesson that emerges clearly from Mosimane’s impending new chapter is the fact that taking up a new challenge shouldn’t mine destructive impulses. The timing however has to be impeccable. If one looks closer, the reasons for Mosimane’s success are quite clear and have been for some time. He was given time and near free will to stamp his mark on Masandawana. 

While things didn’t always go swimmingly, he still struck a telepathic understanding with Mamelodi Sundowns owner, the mining billionaire Patrice Motsepe.
The telepathy was not in vain as The Brazilians won a dozen titles – including the Caf Champions League in 2016 – with Mosimane at the helm. Such sustained success meant that Mosimane had nothing left to prove at Mamelodi Sundowns. 
Unanimity is a rare commodity in the tribal world of Ugandan club football, but there has, rightly, been no dissent from the view that Mike Mutebi is our answer to Mosimane.

Despite being routinely described in breathless detail as a blowhard with a talent for intimidation, if past seasons have shown anything, it is that Mutebi is arguably Uganda’s best home-bred coach. He runs everything down to the smallest details while showing an unwavering allegiance to his philosophy.
 
In November, Mutebi will enter his fifth season since agreeing to an emotional return to KCCA. During his time at Lugogo, an unfolding renovation has been noteworthy. He’s won seven titles and reached the group stage of the Caf Confederation Cup and Caf Champions League for good measure.
Does such a roll of honour mean that – much like Mosimane at Masandawana – Mutebi has nothing left to prove at Lugogo? Far from it. There is a lot of unfinished business at what Mutebi accurately calls a long-term project. 

Yet some hint of his supposed unease creeps ever so often into the picture. Recent developments seemed to suggest that every glance exchanged between Mutebi and the KCCA board continues to be accompanied by a small but perceptible glimmer of diffidence and suspicion.
A few online publications ran with stories of the uneasy calm reaching breaking point. last month The apocalyptic predictions turned out to be wildly off the mark, but fissures remain. And with Mutebi’s history of not suffering fools, the possibility of him walking away cannot be entirely ruled out. 

The key thing is for both parties not to give each other a reason to end things acrimoniously and prematurely. For this to see the light of day, they will have to think and talk in lockstep. 
But also – probably most importantly – healthy boundaries have to be drawn. Mutebi could yet leave Lugogo in circumstances not dissimilar from those that took Mosimane from Tshwane to Cairo. For now, though, there’s lots of work to do at either end of the aisle.