Kimanzi's deslike for short players..

I salute Francis Kimanzi, head coach of our national team Harambee Stars. I have respect for you as your work exhibits a thought process. I have also realized you take coaching seriously- a good thing if you quit playing early to become a tactician.

You are a good planner as well in the way you have short listed local based players, while taking your time on the short supply of foreign based players at your disposal. You have done a good job thus far and for that receive a pat on the back.

I have got some answers why Patrick Kagogo, Salim Kinje and Idrissa Rajab were released and John Onami retained by Sofapaka under your watch. It is not because they are foreigners but rather because nature that endowed them with football talent denied them height.

Kenya is endowed in many ways but also comes short in other areas and football is one of them. Our impatience always leaves us short of time and our stinginess to players may not necessarily a short in finances. I can say we are short people in football terms so I will be short but not so sweet.

Short sighted; we never make long term plans on football. We will always come up with short term crisis mode of operation. This is evident in clubs and the national team, where coaches are hired and fired within three months. Insist on a long term plan and do not allow your boss to take a short cut. This makes our success a long shot and when we hit it, it is short-lived.

Short changed; Kenyans have gotten accustomed to being short changed every day. We appoint and elect leaders based on skewed criteria. This then denies us the opportunity to hold them accountable. You deserve the job as the most qualified (in terms of papers) local coach. Kindly do not short change us.

 Short on talent? We are never short on talent but out short sightedness makes good talent to be in short supply. We are also a people very short in memory so we hardly retain facts about talent and matters of football. We forget good players next door then send air tickets to players who we don’t even play.

Short circuits; in our short cuts we short circuit our endeavors. When we overlap in traffic jams, we create gridlocks. When we attempt to assemble a team in one week, we drop in rankings as KFF officials’ shorts’ pockets get lined. We frustrate promising players out of the game into the short and sweet life of delinquency. We bring down people to go lift ourselves then we fail to go up.

I will cut my long story short and say coach, as individuals and as a society we fall short in many ways. As a football playing nation, we lack a consistent natural right fullback, now that Osborne Monday is not fit enough. You have called Mulinge Ndeto, and the soldier is good though I will say his best days have passed. Have you watched Edwin Baraza play for Ingwe? oh oh- he is also short.

There is a diminutive player in Kenya, just like Maradona, Messi, Mascherano and Genarro Gatuso. Currently plying his trade in the Tanzania Premier League (TPL) and skipper for Azam FC. I know his shortcoming is that he is short but you are not short of smarts. May you employ a short memory and forget all that happened before- if there is any and call Ibrahim Shikanda to the national team.

I will stop short of going into details of his exploits in Tanzania, and let you do the necessary. I know you know your job better than me, but sometimes the curious onlooker has a story to tell. We can turn our shortcomings in our greatest pillars, because we love the beautiful game.