A local coach name withheld has been lined up to take charge of the scorpions when they take Mauritania in a double legged tie in three months’ time, a source close to football house reveals.
The Gambia are without a coach since they parted company with Swiss-born Raoul Savoy in December. Savoy’s tenure was marred with a string of poor results and dressing room discord with key players opting out of his squad in crucial fixtures.
December 5, 2015, when the GFF was announcing the termination of Raoul’s contract, a senior executive members, Bakary K Jammeh, said the GFF will focus on its strategic development plans which includes the promotion of grassroots football. According to him, the plan is to build a team that will compete and compete well in future continental and world championships.
“The focus is to use the bottom-up approach of building a team. So we will go back to the schools, develop youth football, the national league and while we’re doing this we want a coach who will be here to see the talents we have,” Jammeh said.
The GFF also promised to keep the public abreast with matters surrounding the hiring of a coach, but three weeks on, the federation hasn’t come public about who the scorpions’ next coach will be.
However, a source close to the GFF indicated that there are signs that a local coach will be given the chance to lead the scorpions into March, 2016 encounters and possibly for the rest of the 2017 AFCON qualifiers where The Gambia sit bottom of Group M with a solitary point.
Peter Bonu Johnson was the last local coach to handle the scorpions back in 2013. In December, 2014, he was appointed coach of the local based scorpions but got sacked after his side was dumped out of the 2016 CHAN qualifiers at the preliminary stage by neighbours Senegal.
Bonu Johnson’s name as well as Sang Ndong, Matarr Mboge, Tapha Manneh, Alagie Sarr and Omar Sise as well as former Gambian international who have bagged some coaching badges are all in hat for consideration for the national team role Nna Gambia News understand.