Time For 'Home Grown' Coach

Coaching remains an integral part of the development of football as a sport in every country and the discovery of the many talents seen in Ghana now were unearthed by local bred coaches. The development of the game in Ghana started many years ago and during those tender ages in our football development many of the teams were managed by local coaches who have over the years toiled and helped in its growth. Therefore, the argument is; if our own coaches were able to manage our teams back in the days where the standards of the sport was low, how much more now that coaches have made tremendous strides in the development of the game through learning and undertaking of courses. Even though many of the coaches need to upgrade themselves to compete at the big state, some of them have been through the mill and can equally compete at any level. With the advent of 'professional football', players and coaches all over the world have learnt more by making the game more complex with several tactical dispositions. Despite the complexity of the rules of the game, the style of certain group of countries can easily be noticed. European football is seen to be pacey, and a typical European player is not skilful except for players from Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, and to some extent France. The South Americans are known for their skills, flair and speed whilst African football is about skills, flair and physique with the Asians known for their sheer speed and counter-attacks. The 'Selecao' of Brazil under Coach Luis Felipe Scolari had to be counselled to play like Brazilians rather than Europeans. For Africa, however, the introduction of expatriate coaches, mainly from Europe has done nothing but change 'our style of play' thereby retarding the development of the game on the continent. The 'Elephants' of Cote d'Ivoire are considered by the connoisseurs of the game to be one of the best African teams because almost all their players play at the top level. They are solid in every department; be it in defense, midfield or attack - but suffered a group stage exit during the 2006 World Cup in Germany - simply because they decided to play like the Europeans. The Black Stars of Ghana made an impact during the 2006 World Cup because the team played as Ghanaians. For the first time since 1992, the Black Stars were seen playing their own game; good inter-positional passes with individual skills and flair, they were strong with good ball control, excellent team play, and they played with great telepathy and fluency. The team was reminiscent of the days of the Abedi Pele's and Tony Yeboah's, and the 'Multi-System' play of the Olympic team in Barcelona in 1992. The writer Isaac Kwesi Mintah, an Intern with the GNA Sports considers that - "as a football loving nation that we have to be our self by playing our style of game, and this can be better achieved by our own coaches because they know the physche of the our players and better understand our style of play". Which expatriate coach knows more about the likes of Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, Asamoah Gyan, Stephen Appiah and John Mensah better than the Sellas Tetteh's, the Jones Atuquayefio's, the Kwesi Afrani's and Sam Adday. Other coaches such as Oti Akenten, Herbert Addo, Abdul Razak, Bashiru Hayford, Mohammed Polo and the good-old Osam Duodo can all handle our national teams. The question also is "Why don't we believe in our own coaches." After all most of the trophies won by Ghana at any of the levels whether at the club or national events were won by our local coaches. C K Gyamfi won the African Cup of Nations in 1963, 1965 and 1982. In the year 2000, when Attuquayefio won the African Champions League with Accra Hearts of Oak, he competed against expatriate coaches but he beat them with his local tactics and finally won the ultimate trophy. Similarly in 2005, coach Attuquayefio again won the CAF Cup with Hearts against another Ghanaian side, Kumasi Asante Kotoko, which was then handled by a German, Hans Smith. At that time, Kotoko was in pole position of clinching the trophy, but coach Smith made some woeful tactical blunders that denied the "Porcupine Warriors" from winning the final match. Attuquayefio knew his players and the terrain very well and won the battle with his tactics against the German. A lot of questions have been raised about the capabilities of local coaches on the African continent. Most soccer fans would never forget the 1992 Nations Cup held in Senegal when Cote d'Voire's little known national team coach, Yeo Martial beat an army of loud talking expatriates to the trophy by defeating Ghana in the most spectacular spot kicks ever witnessed in the tournament's history. Apart from Welshman Michael Smith, who won the Nations Cup with Egypt in 1986, The 'Pharoahs' have ensured that they won the rest of the Nations Cup with local coaches for the fifth time. And it comes to mind that Hassan Shehata of Egypt has equalled the feat of Ghana's C. K. Gyamfi as the only local coaches to have won the trophy back to back with Gyamfi making it in 1963 and 1965 while Shehata made it in 2006 and 2008. If expatriate coaching is anything to go by, then we must as well go in for expatriate players to play for Ghana. We need to set standards for our players to respect our local coaches. The 'big boys' now in Ghana football were discovered, trained and groomed by our own local coaches. It is therefore appropriate that if the local coaches were able to discover and develop such talents, why can't they continue to handle them - now that they (players) have matured to international standards and need training to developing their ball control, tactics, skills and general work rate. I see no reason why a professional footballer would disobey his coach simply because he earns more than his coach and disrespect him because he is a local one. We need a total change of mind about our own local coaches and this must start from the top (the FA) to the many Ghanaian football fans. We have more than enough competent coaches - we need to believe in them, treat them well and give them the free hands to operate and to get the necessary training confidence. Coach Afranie among others was recently a recipient of a National Awards for his enormous contribution to the development of the game. It is worth noting that Black Stars' John Pantsil bought coach Afranie a car as a show of appreciation for making him what he is today. Have we so soon forgotten how the coach guided the U-20 team in 2001 to the finals? He is now the Head Coach of the National U-17 team and has developed many talents, guiding the team to win its first silver wear in a Four-Nation tournament in Cote d'Voire. No wonder he is touted as the 'Coach Hene.' To add to a critical assessment of Coach Sellas Tetteh who has helped to produce and develop many of the talents at Liberty Professionals and proving to be a good coach at the national level as well. He took the 2007 U-17 team from 'good old' Osam Duodo about three months to the World championship in Korea. He reshuffled the team to get to the semis. His stop-gap guidance of the Black Stars during the joint 2010 Africa and World Cup qualifiers proves his worth and mettle. Added to his credit is his handling of the current U-20 team, which is a 'bullet' of a team, thrashing their Angolan counterparts 5-1 in their first leg. The question to ask now is to what level should our own coaches get to before we realise that they can manage our teams? I still find it extremely difficult to understand why this is happening to only to our coaches. Are we perfect in all aspects of our sports development? What about the FA? Take a look at the irregularities in our Premier League fixtures. At a point the league was brought to a halt for almost a whole season. At this stage of our professional football, there are not even cameras at some the venues to cover the events. Why don't we go in for expatriate administrators from England, Spain or Italy to manage our football for us if we have such a phobia? Let's give our local coaches the chance - they have come of age.