The 47-year-old McCarthy was officially unveiled on Monday after several months of speculations as a replacement for Turkish tactician Engin Firat, who was fired from the role after his failure to take Harambee Stars to the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) scheduled for Morocco in 2025.
The former Bafana Bafana striker, who signed a contract that will run until the 2027 AFCON to be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, will be assisted by Vasili Manoussaki, Joseph Moeneb (goalkeeper coach) and Pilela Maposa (performance analyst).
McCarthy took over from Francis Kimanzi, who was working on an interim basis assisted by Zedekiah ‘Zico’ Otieno and John Kamau. Under Firat, Harambee Stars had three local coaches – assistants William Muluya and Ken Odhiambo alongside goalkeeper trainer Jerim Onyango.
McCarthy needs a Kenyan coach under him to succeed
Speaking exclusively to Flashscore on the latest changes in the Harambee Stars technical bench, Onsika - who handled Kenya’s U19 national team in 2002 during the CECAFA youth tournament in Zanzibar where they reached the quarter-finals - is of the opinion that a Kenyan coach should be seconded to McCarthy’s bench so as to help him understand quickly the local game.
“Without a local coach in his technical bench set-up, McCarthy is bound to fail, and he will not succeed in whatever he wants to achieve with the national team,” Onsika told Flashscore. “It doesn’t make sense for a Kenyan national team's technical bench to have only foreign coaches, from the top and to the goalkeeping area, and none from Kenya to add the local touch.
“It is prudent for FKF to look at this issue once again, and get someone from the local set-up to work under McCarthy. It is not too late, he (McCarthy) has only been appointed and unveiled, he hasn’t started work, he hasn’t even named his squad for the World Cup qualifiers, so it means that FKF can still second a local coach to the bench before he (McCarthy), gets down to work.”
Onsika, who played for Harambee Stars in the late 80s and 90s, continued: “A local coach will help McCarthy in many things, he or she understands the local league more, understands Kenyan players even more, and understands expectations from Kenyans on Harambee Stars.
"If you put all these points together (and add many more), it is the reason, I insist that McCarthy deserves to work alongside a local-based coach, and that is if FKF’s vision is to improve the standards and performances of Harambee Stars.
“But if they don’t want (to hire a local coach), then definitely, the decision will work against them. It will be a big mess, and it will make him (McCarthy) fail terribly, and I can assure you that from the beginning of the process, FKF made a huge mistake of unveiling McCarthy without giving him a local coach to work with.”
FKF don’t have respect for local coaches
Onsika, who played for Kisumu Posta in the Kenyan Premier League, further faulted the local federation for looking down upon local coaches, especially when it comes to serious matters involving Harambee Stars.
“It is unfortunate that Harambee Stars will be in the hands of coaches from outside whereas we have qualified coaches around, who can do the job. I don’t have any issues with McCarthy coming in but honestly speaking, it could be fair if local coaches are considered to work with the team even if it means from behind the scenes,” explained Onsika.
“Why was it that when FKF were looking for a replacement for Firat, they settled for Kimanzi? It means they did it because it was for a short-term period, so they simply forget that they have qualified coaches around. They hire foreigners to take charge but when those foreigners run away, they resort to local coaches, giving them contracts that cannot be compared to those of foreign coaches.”
Onsika posed another question: "Do you know what will happen if FKF goes ahead to fire McCarthy, or even McCarthy walks away today? They will rush back to local coaches for help. It is the reason I am saying local coaches should be respected and treated the same way foreign coaches are treated. If FKF's desire is to have the national team under a foreign coach, they should also consider a local coach to work under that foreigner, or whoever they appoint.
“People may think that I am against foreign coaches handling our national teams, but that is not the case, we learn a lot from them, we exchange ideas with them which is very healthy for the betterment of the sport in the country, but what irritates most is when local coaches are always looked down upon especially on jobs that they can handle if given the same support (including financially), that foreign coaches are given when they take charge.”
McCarthy’s first assignment will be the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against the Gambia away on March 17th, and the home game against Gabon on March 24th. However, he finds Kenya sitting fourth in Group F with five points, five less than leaders Ivory Coast, while Gabon are second with nine points and Burundi third with seven points.
Under Firat, Kenya had played four qualifying matches - a 2-1 defeat against Gabon, recovered to beat Seychelles 5-0, drew 1-1 against Burundi and secured a vital 0-0 draw against African champions Ivory Coast.
