Shikanda tells Aussems time is ripe for Leopards to win a league title

AFC Leopards chairman Dan Shikanda has challenged head coach Patrick Aussems to ensure that the team lifts the league title in the 2022-2023 season.

According to the Leopards chief, they will start planning early and the advantage is Aussems has been a long term project and the team has players who are capable of rising to the occasion as they look forward to making four or five additions to bolster the current squad.

“On the title race we will not want to compromise for anything, we want to start this early and at least we already have a coach in place- Patrick Aussems- , we have the team’s backbone together and therefore what we need to do is to make a few addition of four to five players to the current squad so that we make sure we have a complete team.

We will not have any excuse of having a youthful team, that the team has not gelled and I think next season we will play to win,” Shikanda said.

Leopards lost 17 players before this season started which immensely affected their performance after being forced to turn on academy players to salvage the situation but Shikanda has assured Aussems he will retain all their dependable players this time round.

“Yes he will and can’t lose all the players because we know what happened before the season began and why we lost almost all our players.

They exited because of the federation which was in place that sent our players to leave the team but this time round he will not lose the players and I can say that any player that the coach will want to retain will not be released.

Provided the coach tells us he has this and this player in his plans for next season then we will make sure he gets what he wants and retain almost all the players that we have now,” Shikanda added.

And on the question whether their top striker John-Mark Makwatta who is on loan from Police FC will be part of Leopards squad next season, Shikanda had this to say.

“Everything will depend on the coach, if he wants us to give him- John Makwatta- a permanent contract then we will move with speed to tie him down.

So just the way the coach told you in your interview, we will ensure that he is fully supported by giving him the right tools to use come next season because it is a must for us to win the league,” Shikanda stated.

Amongst the players Ingwe signed in January are; Makwatta, Cliff Nyakeya, Josephat Lopaga and Victor Omune.