Respect to all players and meritocracy in team selections was the secret behind Kenya Police FC’s second leg resurgence, head coach Salim Babu has revealed after guiding the team to Mozzart Bet Cup glory.The Law Enforcers had a disappointing first half of the season that saw the team change tacticians twice. They started the season under the tutelage of Francis Baraza who was fired after a couple of poor results and in his place came Croatian football manager Zdravko Logarusic.The seven FKF Premier League coaches facing the axe following new coaching requirementThe Croat’s short stay with Police was an equally disappointing ordeal for the team. The former Gor Mahia coach fell out with most of the senior players, and his goose seemed to have been cooked when he threatened to suspend and did neglect his then assistant, Salim Babu whom he reportedly accused of neglecting duty when he went to lead the national U-18 team in the CECAFA Championships that they finished second.The Police management then decided to promote Babu from his position of an assistant coach to head coach with the move being the turning point for the team.##NAJAVA_MECA_8216338##“There was no magic that I performed. All I did was to respect the players and assured them that they will play on the basis of merit and nothing else. However, I insisted that work must be done and so I believe it’s the respect that we had for each other and the fact that they knew they had to work hard in order to play, that worked for us,” said BabuThe results of Babu’s efforts was an improvement in performance that in the end saw the team finish third in the league with a good chunk of the players called up for international assignments and most of them all, a win in the Mozzart Bet Cup and a chance to represent the country in the CAF Confederation Cup.Musa Mohammed keen on making Harambee Stars comeback after three years in the cold“When the team was handed over to me, we were around position 9 and so I thought it was an almost impossible task to win it. It is then that I sat the team down and we agreed to shift our attention to the Mozzart Bet Cup and I am glad that we won it and created a record for the team,” added BabuWith a continental assignment and new league season forthcoming, Police FC resumed training on Monday 15 July to sharpen their skills and are also active in the transfer market in search of new, quality players.
