The upheaval at Vipers SC never really stops.Alex Isabirye Musongola’s resignation has thrown yet another spanner in the works at the Kitende based club.The newly crowned UPL Coach of The Season and the newly crowned champions are on the verge of parting ways just over three months after the former came in on a firefighting mission and ended up making history.

In a letter addressed to club CEO Simon Peter Njuba,Isabirye,who had been summoned to a disciplinary hearing by the club after going AWOL,tendered in his resignation from the hot seat over what he termed a breach of his contract,citing the recruitment of playing and coaching staff without his knowledge and consent as a violation of his agreement with the club.

In the same letter,he briefly addressed the issue of the disciplinary summons given to him by the club,defending himself by noting that he was recovering from injuries sustained in an accident.In response,the club has threatened legal action,accusing Isabirye of failing to meet contractual obligations by absconding from duty.

It is a bizzare set of circumstances and cursory analysis immediately leaves one cognizant of the fact that there’s more than meets the eye here.It might indeed be true that Isabirye’s medical situation hindered him from attending the club’s disciplinary meeting and defending his absence from work before his superiors,but using the same letter to throw in the towel and express his displeasure with the club’s actions strongly suggests that his injuries notwithstanding,the main purpose of writing it was to announce his departure.

Sources close to the club have intimated that the resignation was anticipated,if not exactly precipitated.In simple terms,Isabirye only reacted in response to subtle coercion from his superiors.Loath to fire him so soon after such a triumphant end to the campaign,the club has instead forced Isabirye to quit by making his situation unbearable.There’s no need to dig deep to confirm that this theory might hold water.

To understand this situation fully,one must remember that despite his phenomenal success,Isabirye was always going to be a stop gap.It is a strange thing to say about a club that has just lifted a league and cup double,but back in March when Isabirye was appointed to replace Beto Bianchi,it was difficult to envisage Vipers ending the campaign on such a high note.

Losing head coach Robertinho to Simba of Tanzania was a massive blow to Lawrence Mulindwa,which was further exacerbated by his replacement Bianchi’s disastrous short spell.The Brazilian only lasted a winless seven games,in which the club failed to even score in open play.It was no surprise to anyone to see him given the sack so quickly.

The football was insipid and the results were dire.Despite being in touch with pacesetters Villa and KCCA by virtue of a series of games in hand,there seemed to be very little light at the end of the tunnel.Vipers could have been forgiven for writing the season off and just riding out the wave.In a sense,that context was the foundation of the logic behind hiring Isabirye.He was regarded as a cool head who guaranteed stability after the chaos of Bianchi’s reign.

As one of the most highly rated Ugandan coaches,he was entrusted to stop the bleeding and give the team momentum before a post season rebuild.If he had only succeeded with those objectives,or even just ended the season with the Uganda Cup,it would have been received as a bonus.Such was the mood in Kitende at the time.Instead,he capitalised on SC Villa’s bottlejob and KCCA’s own managerial strife to lift the league as well,giving Mulindwa ecstasy but also a dilemma.

Despite public affirmations,the truth is that Vipers did not plan to keep Isabirye long term.This can be surmised from Mulindwa’s speech during Bianchi’s unveiling.Asked a question about hiring local coaches,the academic mogul laughed disdainfully and noted that his ambitions for Vipers could not be fulfilled by local coaches.These ambitions can be understood as making Vipers a continental force at the level of Al Ahly,Zamalek,Mamelodi Sundowns and,to quote Mulindwa himself,TP Mazembe.

Ironically,despite the plethora of foreign coaches hired by Mulindwa during his helm at the club,Vipers’ first ever double was won by a local coach,putting the tycoon between a rock and a hard place.He had hired Isabirye as a low risk appointment,just for the former BUL FC tactician to overachieve massively.Yes the quality of football remained wanting,but the end justifies the means,and two trophies in the cabinet can’t be scoffed at that easily.Hesitant to sack the man just weeks after pulling off a historical feat,the club instead set out to sabotage him by signing players and backroom staff without his input,which was not only a contractual violation as noted by him,but also a sign of a lack of faith in his abilities.

The Brazilian players Giancarlo Lopez Rodrigues and Luis Otavio Santos de Araujo and the Congolese assistant coach Raoul Lukusa Kayembe fully understand the leverage they have over a coach not involved in their arrival and Isabirye fully understands that he would struggle to make them subordinate to him.Any coach without the ability to control his dressing room would stand absolutely no chance,and so Isabirye recognized that his position had become untenable.

It is far from a befitting end to a wildly fruitful marriage and the club’s fans have expressed their displeasure with the manner in which Isabirye’s tenure has come to it’s conclusion.They rightly feel that he has not been given the respect due to him especially after only coming in to steady the ship and ending up writing his name in not just the history of the club,but in the history of Ugandan football too.

But the fact remains that the writing was on the wall right from the beginning.Mulindwa has made it explicitly clear that he does not believe a local coach can lead his club to the peak of the mountain.Not even winning a league and cup double was going to change his mind.The threats of legal action are nothing beyond an administrative sleight-of-hand to legitimise a genuinely unpleasant decision and turn the tables on the victim.It is simply corporate manipulation shrouded in righteous indignation.

Mulindwa’s own words,as well as the unabashed violations of Isabirye’s contract clearly shine light on what is really going on.All that remains to be seen now is who the club will bring in as head coach.It will surprise absolutely no one to see yet another foreigner get the nod.Mulindwa has never been shy about showing and playing his cards after all.