Zoo FC chairman Ken Ochieng has explained why he thinks the Football Kenya Federation Premier League side has been struggling in the 2020/21 season.
Zoo are yet to pick up a win in the season after 10 games since they were reinstated into the league by a local tribunal, as they have drawn in three games and lost the remainder.
"We have not had a good start to the season, which is a great concern," Ochieng said as was quoted by the club's Facebook page.
"That has been occasioned by a myriad of factors most of which have been beyond our control. We, however, as a team are not looking at it as obstacles or excuses but have instead considered them as surmountable challenges which we are determined to overcome.
"If you all recall, we started the season relatively late. Reasons wherefore are in the public domain. We have since been playing catch-ups and the fixture congestion has taken a great physical toll on our players."
Injury concerns have also contributed to the poor start to the season according to the chair, who has placed his hopes on the young players at the club's disposal.
"We have lost key players like Derrick Anami to injury. We had hoped that our last match against Kakamega Homeboyz would signal his comeback so that he could bolster our attack. He, unfortunately, wasn't able to, which is sad," he added.
"He is one of our best goal getters. Godfrey Ouma has also been out with an injury but resumed training recently. We also have a relatively young team. We were hoping that this year would have marked the end of our four-year transitional period from our golden generation.
"There are very few players who are still playing from that lot: Bernard Wanguche, Akiya Stanislaus, Kefa Andati, Misikhu Vincent and Dominic Ouma.
"The rest are youngsters. Some have never played any league matches of this cadre but we have nevertheless taken a big risk with them in view of their enormous talent.
"The potential for them to be superstars in future cannot be underestimated. The likes of Brian Kiplang’at, Edwin Namasaka, Mulili Maxwell, Danson Kiprono, Onchwari Alex, George Otieno, Joseph Amunabi, Murabwa Martin, Lumumba Brian, Godfrey Ouma, Summy Ggolola, Elvis Kiplang'at et al have an average age of 21 years which is commendable.
"You will also notice that most of them are products of our youth set-up. It has been difficult having a good mix and balance of this group with some relatively experienced legs like Pascal Ogweno, Odongo Mathew, Dennis Bwana Ongeri, Collins Neto, Asewe Brian, Newton Ondari, Ben Too, and Dennis Jamogo, coming from a poor pre-season training occasioned by Covid-19 pandemic and other factors alluded to before."
Ochieng is hopeful that the poor run will come to an end when they will tackle Wazito FC on February 28.
"We are however glad that we are quickly finding a gel and hopefully in the next game against Wazito we will have our first win this season and build on it," he concluded.
The Kericho side has managed to stay in the top-flight since they were promoted for the 2017 season.
