Gor Mahia head coach Johnathan McKinstry insists that the team must not rest on their laurels and must build on their title win from last year.
K’Ogalo made history by becoming the first-ever Kenyan team to lift 20 Premier League titles when they defeated Nairobi City Stars at Kasarani in June. They secured the Football Kenya Federation Premier League (FKFPL) title, which was also their first in three years.
McKinstry insists that both he and the club need to keep winning silverware because it will only benefit both parties in both the short and the long term.
“All your decisions and opportunities are based on your success,” McKinstry said in an interview with One on One by Jeff Kinyanjui. “For me to have any sort of future beyond K’Ogalo, we’ve got to continue to win.”
“It is not just winning yesterday. Yesterday is gone. You might not believe this, but in the dressing room after the Nairobi City Stars game, everyone celebrated, but I pulled one of our executives to the side and said to them ‘I need you to do two things tomorrow regarding recruitment.
“The game had only finished an hour earlier with everyone celebrating. I enjoyed it as well and we went to dinner that night, but within that dressing room after that game, I was talking to people on how do we keep winning because we have to win. That is the pressure when you are in this game.”
The Northern Irish tactician, who has enjoyed stints in Africa coaching national teams before commencing on his first club job, admits he is ‘lucky’ to have won some trophies in his career, something top coaches in Europe have failed to do despite having successful careers.
“I am incredibly lucky because of the tens of thousands of coaches who are still in this game, it is an incredibly small amount that have won something. You look at coaches who have had fantastic careers but never won anything,” he added.
“Look at someone like Mauricio Pochettino. Maybe he won something when he was at PSG but again, he has had a great career, but there isn’t a shelf of trophies (a lot) to show for it.
“Someone like David Moyes who has done well at West Ham and I am so proud of him because he is a great manager but the Europa Conference League trophy was his first ever as a manager after 30 years.
“I am incredibly grateful to be at a position where I have won trophies over the years but I also know that if I want to maintain in this game, we have got to keep winning, that is the first thing.”
