I don't think the part about Sitake belonged in that same article. The article did a good job of putting together his argument of why he believed Bronco had failed and he should have ended it at that point.

Bringing up Sitake muddies the waters by making it seem like Stevenson is just putting down Bronco to prop up his friend as a replacement.

The Sitake part would have been a good second article where Stevenson could have pointed to possible replacements like Niumatololo and more. If you put all your eggs in the Sitake basket you run a good risk of being disappointed when he says no or somebody else gets offered the job instead.