From a hot-head to mature general: Gor Mahia coach Mckinstry hails Ernest Wendo's professionalism and longevity

Wendo has evolved over his time at Gor, from being an all action box to box player who had the tendency to play on the edge, which constantly left him getting booked or sent off to being a mature player who dictates play from the middle of the park and sits in front of the defense.

It is a common theme in Kenyan football to see players moving from club to club after one or two years.

Usually, players leave to seek greener pastures quickly because their contracts run for a maximum of one or two seasons on average.

As a result, it is difficult to find teams getting a sense of togetherness and cohesion from playing with each other for a long period of time. This leaves teams underwhelming after achieving a given milestone because they struggle to remain consistent.

Gor Mahia midfielder Ernest Wendo is one of a very few players that have disputed that narrative. Wendo joined K’ogalo from Bidco United in 2015, and has now spent close to nine seasons at the club.

The 32-year old has been with Gor for so long, he has become a cult hero at the club and has seen every high and low. 

Wendo has evolved over his time at Gor, from being an all action box to box player who had the tendency to play on the edge, which constantly left him getting booked or sent off to being a mature player who dictates play from the middle of the park and sits in front of the defense.

In an interview with the Jeff Kinyanjui YouTube channel, head coach Johnathan McKinstry was full of prase of Wendo’s sheer professionalism, suggesting that he is the type of player coaches like working with, which may explain why he has served Sirkal for such a long time.

“In football, you are always looking for these guys who are consummate professionals, “ Mckinstry said, “ they are in early and doing their activation works with the bonds, whatever work you have laid out,” he added.

“Their training starts before training, so when that whistle blows, they are ready and they will make sure that that 90 minutes of training, they are maximizing. There is this saying about sucking the juice out of the lemon, can they maximize their time?

“Ernest is the type who does that. He does not waste his time. He has been in the game long enough that he knows that he will make the most of every 90 minutes he has before doing it all over again tomorrow so that when he gets to the next game, he will do well.

“Earnest looks after his body, the stuff he does off the field is good. He does not run around shopping malls or visit friends for ten hours a day. He knows you know that ‘this is my job and I wanna make the most out of it and I am going to do what is right off the pitch as well as off it’.

McKinstry believes that Wendo’s professionalism has rubbed onto his fellow teammates in the right way, but also believes that there are other players in that dressing room that share a similar degree of professionalism.

Benson Omala, last season’s 26-goal wonder is someone McKinstry believes has benefited massively from that.

“He is not the only one. We also have several players like that, the likes of Geoffrey Ochieng, even Benson this season has shown his maturity this season. If you look at his maturity last season and then look at his maturity this season, you can see the physical development, and that is mostly in his own time which has added to the mercurial goalscorer that he is.

“When I joined, I received a lot of calls and texts from the players. Earnest is one of those who is a man of few words but he follows it up with his actions, which is the best way to be.”

Wendo has developed into one of the league’s most assured deep lying playmakers alongside Tusker captain Humphrey Mieno. His discipline has improved significantly as he has rarely been on the end of early baths under the Northern Irishman.

McKinstry has compared his evolution to that of former Man United great Roy Keane.

“We told Ernest that look, we do not need you to charge up and down the pitch all the time. We want you to be the pivot and that guy who is almost sitting in front of the back four and almost like a nightclub bouncer.

“Leave the aggressive pressing to the likes of Alpha Onyango, Sydney Ochieng, John Ochieng and even Austin Odhiambo. Do not be the conductor. Be more of a general, a bit like Roy Kean later in his career.

“In his early 20s, Roy Keane was very much a box-to-box midfielder. By the time he was in his 30s, he was pretty much a player who would sit deep and become more of someone who would manage everything, which is the phase Ernest is in that phase right now.

“Do not get me wrong, if we asked him to be the number eight, he would love to go and do it, but it is more about maximizing not just his quality, but also the qualities of the guys around them, making sure they compliment each other.