An open letter to Milovan Rajevac’s successor

Dear Coach,

Congratulations for being appointed as the next coach of the Ghana Black Stars. I wish you all the best, but I fear that the job might be too much for you. Why do I write this when I don’t even know who you will be? It is because I believe that being the coach of the Ghana Black Stars is the most difficult job in international football.

You are coming in at a high point in the history of Ghanaian football. In the last 5 years, our teams have won a U-20 World Championship, obtained consecutive World Cup qualifications and appearances in the knockout stages, and appeared in the AFCON final for the first time since 1992. With all of this talent at your disposal, you may be thinking that you are very fortunate to work with such a group of players and this is true. However, judging on how fans and the media treated your predecessors, be aware that the expectations on and this is true. However, judging on how fans and the media treated your predecessors, be aware that the expectations on your shoulders are enormous.

With regard to the expectations of the current team, I am reminded of the plight of the United States. In 2002, they qualified for the knockout stages of the World Cup, defeated Mexico in the 2nd round, before ironically losing to Germany in the quarterfinals when a handball on the goal line was not spotted by the officials. After this tournament, American fans were in a frenzy and expected to be competing for the World Cup title soon. It was only after Ghana knocked them out of two consecutive World Cups that fans are now saying, “We are not as good as we thought.” What many of these fans failed to realize was that the United States run in 2002 was highly influenced by luck. Their goalkeeper, Brad Friedel, saved two penalty kicks in the tournament. Portugal hit the crossbar in the dying minutes of their match against South Korea. If any of those incidents had turned out differently, the US would have gone out in the first round. They were lucky to draw a familiar foe in the second round before they lost to Germany in the quarterfinals.

While I believe that Ghana’s 2010 squad is better than the 2002 United States team, there are many parallels. The game against Serbia was won by a moment of inexplicable stupidity, when the Serbian reached up and touched the ball with his hand in the penalty box. Ghana only qualified for the knockout round after Australia surprisingly defeated Serbia. They faced a familiar foe in the second round when they were drawn against the United States. They had luck on their side all the way until Gyan missed the penalty kick against Uruguay.

You are coming in at a time when expectations for the team are astronomical. This is also a time when there is a sense that things are unraveling. The issue of unpaid bonuses has been resolved, but only after a long delay. FIFA is looking at government interference in the Ghana Football Association. The players themselves have spoken out in support of various coaching candidates. Two successive 0-0 draws have hardly been impressive, given that the previous coach was criticized for having too defensive of an approach.

But you should be aware that before the Black Stars have played a single match, you will already have a large number of people who don’t think you are the right man for the job. If you are foreign, the local coach advocates will be against you. If you are a local coach, the foreign coach advocates will be against you. Some will criticize your every decision, just because they thought someone else should have been chosen to coach the team.

In case you did not know, in Ghana, everyone is a coach. That is to say that everyone has an opinion about the right tactics, the team selection, your choice of assistant coaches, where the matches should be played, what teams are scheduled for friendly matches and any other decision that is made about the team. Whenever you pick a team, you will be criticized for leaving out certain players, no matter who they are. It is not enough for you to assemble a winning team. Your team must play attacking football and score a glut of goals, lest you be labeled the “one goal project”. When the Black Stars win, be sure to celebrate wildly, lest you be accused of having divided loyalties.

You don’t have much time to figure things out with this team. The next competitive match is a tricky away fixture in Congo. It is a must-win game, as Ghana are in a AFCON qualifying group with two stronger teams (Ghana and Sudan) and two weaker teams (Congo and Swaziland). You will have to figure out how to bring the team together and get the strikers to score goals. This group may end up with Ghana having to travel to Sudan, needing a win to guarantee qualification for the tournament.

I wish you all the best. I hope that the GFA has made the best decision. Finally, I ask that if you are successful, please stick around for more than two years.

Sincerely,

Philip Mensah