Vipers: A managerial mess with an eternal sack race

Vipers have been a hire-fire club longer than anyone can remember.

It has been a revolving door at Vipers in the last 14 years, and current coach Livingstone Mbabazi seems to have his bags packed all the time.

For as long as Vipers owner Lawrence Mulindwa has not shelved his long-held perception that foreign coaches are better than indigenous ones, the Venoms won't have a dynasty manager that stays beyond three years -  wins trophies, dominates and instils a style of play.

Actually, the culture of constant managerial changes at the demanding Kitende atmosphere pre-dates Mbabazi's current misforgivings that reportedly had him suspended for the Iganga Young and Wakiso Giants matches.

It has become part of the fans and top management's DNA to impatiently demand results from the coach even when the other fingers may point at underwhelming players and a toxic environment.

Word is rife at Kitende that Mbabazi may certainly not leave due to indecent results, but an ego clash with the nonsense Mulindwa may expedite their inevitable divorce.  

Mbabazi can pass for a poisoned chalice for any club he calls home - an excellent and frantic commander on the touchline and a temperamental fella off the field. 

Put succinctly, the Mbabazi-Vipers fragile marriage is a tinderbox that threatens the StarTimes Uganda Premier League and Stanbic Uganda Cup walking away empty handed this season. 

Same old Venoms

In his first speech, Mbabazi revealed he had on numerous occasions turned down advances to join Vipers because of the volatile nature of the coach job. 

In fact to-date, many believe it was a union of convenience after Mulindwa had burnt his fingers for the umpteenth time whilst gambling on foreign gaffers. 

But, whatever road block hit his short lived predecessor Leo Martins Neiva, Mbabazi seems to be walking directly into it and the end looks nigh for the former Arua Hills coach.

Insiders at Kitende intimated that the former Uganda Cranes midfielder who honed his coaching craft in Ireland is battling an inexplicable lifestyle demon that overpowers him sometimes. 

A story is said of how Mbabazi was ordered back home on the eve of the Uganda Cup  tie against Iganga Young at Kitende after he turned up in a haggard state. 

Though he maintained he was ill, management tasked him to provide concrete medical proof, reportedly subjected him to a disciplinary committee and warned he was living on borrowed time. 

With about 12 matches left for Vipers to play in the league and into the Cup quarters, don't rule out Vipers from going for either a local or foreign coach soon to reinvigorate the trophy dream. 

Even as a gifted player back in the day in Uganda and abroad, Mbabazi was never short of surprises and unpredictability. 

The Golola magic bullet

Of the 17 coaches that Vipers have employed in the 18 years in the elite division - Edward Golola holds a special attribute. 

He has handlee the Venoms on three occasions ( August 2008-December 2011 , 2014-2015 and July 2019-January 2020) twice winning the league and introducing youngsters in the team. 

The soft spoken coach has also deputized some expatriates and with humility stayed on to work under Ugandan coaches whenever he was demoted - all in the name of appeasing the appointing authority. 

His submissive demeanor, coupled with success with the feeder team (St Mary's SSS Kitende) partly explain why he is most times Mulindwa's hidden option. 

Yet the club has overgrown his capability after Vipers embraced a foreign players recruitment policy in the last four years - that is also proving to be a boon and a bane.

Like Roberto Oliveira, Roberto Bianchi, Isabirye and many before him, Mbabazi is still struggling to bring harmony in the dressing room, be sure of his first XI, get a recognizable football style out of the over 30 big name players and calm the soaring player's egos. 

Then again it is also always a burden for hired coaches to hastily formulate a winning team out of a cluster of multinational players that are largely recruited by top administration. 

Out of the blue, the famed Congolese legion is fast fading away from the Vipers picture with the six-time league winners now turning to grant rookies like Jack Komakech, Enock Luyima and Abubakar Walusimbi a chance to impress. 

A section of Vipers fans is against rebuilding midway the campaign and has often ridiculed Mbabazi for benching proven players like Bright Anukani, Allan Okello and Abubakar Lawal and relying on kids. 

Other imports like Nigerian Abubakar Lawal, Mauritanian Ekbad Salem, Congolese Eric Kambale and others are struggling for playing time during Mbabazi's two-month reign. 

Mbabazi is surely at catch-22 at the moment but unlike Michael Nam Ouma, Javier Martinez, Miguel Da Costa, Abdallah Mubiru, George Nsimbe and Ambrose Chukuma before him, he can make lemonade out of lemons when push comes to shove. 

Half-hearted challengers

Luckily for Mbabazi and Vipers, hope abounds for them to still pursue the available trophies. 

The power centers at Kitende can at times be forgiving if a trophy is in sight and that is how Isabirye used three months to attain a double before absconding from duty for good. 

The 'mercenaries' at Kitende offer Mbabazi a realistic chance to win his first glory as coach but to get over the finish line and attain his dreams, he must read Golola's script to the dot. 

The leading trio of Kitara, Bul and NEC are newbies that are promising to develop feet of clay at the business stage which ultimately propels the Venoms to get their act together and launch a final and decisive offensive. 

One is spot on to assert that Vipers proverbial 99 problems literally start and end with their president. 

To him, winning trophies is just the start and can't buy you years in the hot seat as Golola, Kajoba, Da Costa and Oliveira have witnessed firsthand. 

Mulindwa won't rest on his laurels when SC Villa Serbian coach Dusan Stojanovic is scribbling a commendable chapter for the Jogoos yet he is the lead crusader of having a foreign coach. 

At Vipers, senior players enjoy an open door policy with Mulindwa's office and this at times brings them into direct conflict with the technical team. 

Mbabazi heads a Vipers' expansive technical team that has experienced coaches like  Brazilian Jose Costa Lopez, Richard Wasswa, Richard Bakabulindi Kasule and Dan Male - and they all believe they have the guys to handle the team if given the opportunity. 

This creates friction in line of duty and is partly responsible for the surprise departure of colleagues Raoul Lukusa and Ibrahim Mugisha recently. 

The good news at Kitende is, even when in auto pilot or when saddled with a catalogue of problems, Vipers have the proverbial nine lives of a cat to reign supreme.

Vipers coaches since 2006

Charles Katumba - January-April 2006

Charles Ayiekoh - May-December 2006

Jackson Mayanja - January 2007-July 2008

Edward Golola - August 2008-December 2011

Ambrose Chukuma - 2012-2013

Edward Golola - 2014-2015

George Nsimbe - August 2015-June 2016

Abdallah Mubiru - July-December 2016

Richard Wasswa - January- March 2017

Miguel Da Costa - March 2017-July 2018

Javier Martinez - August-December 2018

Michael Nam Ouma - January-July 2019

Edward Golola - July 2019-January 2020

Fred Kajoba - January 2020-May 2021

Roberto Oliveira - August 2021-December 2022

Beto Bianchi - January-March 2023

Alex Isabirye - March-June 2023

Martins Neiva - June-January 2024

Livingstone Mbabazi - January - todate