It’s concerning that SC Villa lost their 2023/24 StarTimes Uganda Premier League winning coach Dusan Stojanovic, an achievement that has eluded them since 2004.
Although replacing him with someone fresh from the outside is an option the club management will inevitably consider, weighing and giving a chance to what is readily available should not be ruled out.
In fact naming Morley Byekwaso as Stojanovic’s deputy can be termed as a move of readying themselves for the former’s departure.
Should the record champions of the Uganda Premier League settle for Byekwaso as the Serbian’s permanent successor, it should not be surprising.
Not only will the 17-time UPL winners be solving the expenditure problem but also acquiring the services of a proper manager in the former KCCA tactician.
The 47-year-old holds vast experience and has seen it all as far as managing football in Uganda is concerned.
His experience ranges from deputising Alex Isabirye at the defunct Sports Club Victoria University in 2013 as they won the Stanbic Uganda Cup before he was named head coach.
As Victoria University head coach he won the inaugural Nile Basin CECAFA Cup while he also won the Tarehe Sita Cup with the defunct Simba in 2016.
During the same year he was named Mike Mutebi’s assistant and the two walked a successful journey together until the latter was sacked in March 2021.
He took over as an interim manager until the end of 2020/21 season before taking over fully at the start of the 2021/22 campaign.
Into the second season of his contract he resigned and he returned to his former club to deputise Stojanovic.
He has also been around national teams but most significantly guiding the Uganda Hippos to two continental finals.
The U20 team reached the U20 Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2021 before losing 2-0 to Ghana in Mauritania and also lost the All Africa Games final to host Ghana in 2023.
His experience, success, and ability ensures that he rubs shoulders with the few better Ugandan coaches in the league in the likes of KCCA’s Abdallah Mubiru and URA FC’s Alex Isabirye.
Byekwaso played for Villa between 2002 and 2005, a period when they were a hot cake and therefore guiding the Jogoos in the CAF Champions League should not be a task he can’t perform.
In addition to playing in the Champions League, he has also been at that stage as a KCCA assistant notably when they reached the group stages in 2018.
He is one of the coaches with a core attribute of nurturing talent and likes to work with young players, a direction Villa have embraced recently.
The former Uganda Cranes midfielder’s reign as Villa’s interim coach starts on Saturday as they take on the Cranes Select Team in the quarterfinals of the FUFA Super 8.
Villa will later embark on their Champions League journey which starts from the first round of the preliminaries against Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE). Will Byekwaso be their manager then? I think so.
