A lot has happened in the past weeks, the Glo Premiership, the EPL (where Arsenal moved up to the 2nd position with a match in hand), 2010 World Cup qualifiers (where Thierry Henry handled the ball with the hand twice before Willie Gallas scored for France to qualify for the world cup 2010), Manny Pacquiao teaching Miguel Cotto a real boxing lesson, Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Asamoah Gyan exhibiting a blatant disregard for senior national team, the Black Stars by staying out of the team billed to play Angola in an international friendly to commemorate a stadium built for the AFCON and so on. It’s been difficult for me to settle on a topic for this piece because I had a lot to write on.
Anyway, I find it difficult and hard to accept the excuse given by the head coach of the Black Stars, Mr. Milovan Rajevac that apart from Harrison Afful, he doesn’t know of any other player who can play at the left full back position (The orthodox number 3 position) in his absence. I see this excuse as an insult to all the local coaches in the major leagues in Ghana, be it Glo Premier League, Polytank Div. 1, etc. because there are so many left full back (LFB) players in these leagues.
This is a kind of manager who only travels out of the country to monitor foreign based players without staying in the country to watch our local league matches and identify talents for the Black Stars. Before this man was appointed, we were made to understand that he is a man who unearths talents, a disciplinarian, a great tactician etc. but it’s been over a year since he was appointed (I stand for correction though) and I haven’t seen him unearth a single talent or disciplined a player even though we’ve seen certain players show indiscipline attitudes in the team.
Elsewhere in the Barclay Card English Premier League, we always see Fabio Capello (the manager of the English national team) watch at least 4 league matches a week since he begun managing the team. What then prevents Coach Milo from watching at least 1 match in a week? How can he find a LFB player if he fails to watch our league matches? That position has been problematic since Jacob Nettey (formerly with Hearts of Oak) retired from the national team after the AFCON 2000 hosted by Ghana and Nigeria. In any case, Jacob Nettey was a local based player when he was with the national team which was handled by Guiseppe Dossena. Shilla Illiasu Alhassan (a left back or centre back) was an Asante Kotoko FC player when he played at the LFB in the 2006 world cup in Germany, Habib Mohammed was also a player of Alhaji Grunsah’s King Faisal when he was introduced as a LFB replacement for Adorquaye Papoe in Germany by the then head coach, Ratomir Dukovic. All the left full backs that we’ve had in the national team except Nana Kwasi Asare and Hans Adu Sarpei have all been locally based because they usually don’t get foreign contracts. Names such as Kwesi Appiah (now deputy coach of the Black Stars), Isaac Asare, Emmanuel Asare, Jacob Nettey, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour, are those that readily come to mind.
If Milo needs a LFB, he should look through the local teams and it doesn’t necessarily have to be Kotoko or Hearts of Oak. Since he hardly changes some of the players which make them think they are untouchables, how could he have found solutions to certain positions in the team? For me, the LFB is not the only problematic position in the team but also the central defense, attack and the goal keeping positions. We have still not found replacement for Richard Kingston, John Mensah, to some extent Harrison Afful, and co. Eric Addo is an experienced defensive midfielder and he should be sent back to assist Essien rather than the centre back role. He was only brought in to the central defense because Shilla Illiasu was injured in the AFCON 2008 hosted by Ghana.
Coach Milo should also look within the set up for replacement in the left full back position. Sulley Muntari was a LFB in the under 17 and under 20 level. That is his natural position. Someone should tell him. John Paintsil is a utility player we can try there since he has previously played in that position. Rahim Ayew and Aziz Ansah are players that he can try in the friendly matches that the team will play before the AFCON 2010 and South Africa 2010. It will also not be out of place to play centre backs like Jonathan Mensah, Jonathan Quartey,and Isaac Vorsah at the LFB position. Rajevac, please spare us all those kind of excuses. It doesn’t sound convincing. Thank you.
What am I hearing about an agency that Milovan is associated with? Is that the reason why a fine striker like Eric Berkoe, who is one of the current joint top scorers in the Egyptian league isn’t called to justify his inclusion in the team? Why is Samuel Inkoom (a great talent by all standard), being forced to play at the left full back position, a position that he has shown that he is not capable of playing without problems, at least the Ghana V Benin and the Ghana V Mali matches are there for all to see. He felt uncomfortable at that role during his days at Kotoko. Full investigation should be done concerning this agency thing before it gets out of hand. The Dominico Ricci agency thing where by only players in Dossena camp were only called up to feature for the Black Stars, is a typical experience we must learn from. The national team is for all eligible Ghanaian footballers and not owned by a few Ghanaians who by chance find their way at helm of affairs as officials or players. We need the nations cup trophy and also go far in the world cup. Senegal, Cameroon and Nigeria have all reached the quarter finals before and to show that we are a force to reckon with, we need to reach the semi final. We can’t afford to fail. God Bless our homeland Ghana and make our Nation GREAT and STRONG….
FELIX DONKOR,
www.felixdonkor.blogspot.com
