Golala wants fifth chance at Vipers

Triumphant Tooro United coach Edward Golola has cut short his celebration with the side for earning a direct return to the StarTimes Uganda Premier League to confess his profound love for Vipers.
Golola, who guided Tooro United to a 1-0 victory over Kigezi HomeBoyz on Sunday to return to top flight football after a season-long absence, says his football soul rests elsewhere from Tooro. 
“I love Vipers because we are a family. As a family, sometimes you have misunderstandings but that does not ruin the relationship,” said Golola.   
 Interim coach
Vipers, third in the league standings on 56 points, two behind leaders Express, is currently under an interim coach in Paul Kiwanuka after Fred Kajoba left the job two weeks ago.
Golola remains the most successful coach the reigning league champions have ever had, having won two league titles as head coach and another as an assistant to Portuguese Miguel da Costa.  
He has been on and off at the Entebbe Road side on four occasions. He started out as coach of St. Mary’s SSS Kitende in 2003 where he moved in from Citizen high School.

Breakthrough
St. Mary’s SSS Kitende is owned by Dr. Lawrence Mulindwa, the Vipers’ patron. Once settled in at Kitende, Golola was handed the job at Bunnamwaya, Vipers’ previous name. The club went on to win their first league title in 2010, a feat he repeated in 2015. On all these occasions, he also doubled as the school team coach.
The school team would remain a dominant force in both local and East Africa schools football tournaments.
In between, Golola has been demoted to assistant coach whenever Vipers hire foreign coaches who never last. Over the years, he has the perfect fallback option.  

Break from the past
When he was sacked last year, unlike on previous occasions where he spent his sabbaticals with the school team, this time, Golola was thrown out of the Kitende football setup.He eventually ended up at Tooro United where he swore new vows of commitment and self-sacrifice for results. It was a masterstroke for the two parties.
“I want to come back home and start where I stopped. I had built a system of playing young talented players but since my exit all my effort has been wasted,” lamented Golola.
“I regularly talk to Mr Mulindwa on the phone because we are a family. I think Vipers is the place where I’m meant to be.”  

Permission
“But, that too has to depend on my current boss Alice Namatovu, the president of Tooro United. If she allows me, I can go back to Vipers and finish the job I started,” he affirms. Golola is well aware that the club management could be looking around for a replacement for Kajoba when this season ends.
This could be the reason why he is not shy about expressing his desire to grab the chance a fifth time. Current coach Kiwanuka is the 15th in 14 years.