Are We Building or Breaking (Part I)

History, immemorial from time, have had a complete hold on everything we do; especially when football which wields power, love, and passion of Ghanaians next to politics, is brought into focus. More especially, when the Ghana Black Stars gets jittery and appear to be losing it. Ghanaians have had the tendency to react so badly we hardly consider or think about the impact it may have had on the players who for the utter most part of their life, had elected to die a little for mother Ghana.

The Abedi Pele/Tonny Yeboah’s public display of mistrust, apathy and a spit of jealousies are too ugly to remember or recall to refresh our memories at a time when we are hoping to put it in the dustbin as we begin life anew with these crop of dedicated young lads who have steered in no small way Ghana's football image with two consecutive WC appearances, semi-finals and finals here, or there. With all the hopes given us we know better things are yet to come. But why are all these persecutions and inflammatory jabs? Like my Godfather would say, "Boniay3 Kae Dabi" Aren't their good deeds out-weight their bad deeds? Just remember.

It sad to observe that, normally, the jabs and vibes are brought down heavily on players who are deemed inconsistent in their play thereby causing us to suffer misery by the media. The media would go at any length to wash such players clean forgetting that, football is a game and not a war and that, such negative writings could cause bouts of repercussions for many years to come. We must therefore attempt to handle such situations tactfully and diplomatically so we don't hurt our own.

Mr. Raymond Yeboah is a prominent writer which most of us have truly admired and enjoyed his writings. Unfortunately, his article posted on the 10th of Feb titled, “Asamoah Gyan is a threat to Black Stars unity”, is nothing but a work so engineered by the devil. I do not think he was himself when he penned those scripts down. The devil comes to steal, to kill and to destroy and these characters were exactly what that article portrayed. No wonder, the article was condemned by a cross section of the forumers.

By his caption: "Let me expose Asamoah Gyan here." (culled)

What do the public derive from such an act? Are we building or destroying? Isn't it time, as a media mogul, to help put the team together? Or just that you deliberately seeking to bring division among the playing body? Gyan missed some crucial penalties which could have gotten us into historical moments. Yes, I do understand but to expose him as he continues to play for you and I is shear ungratefulness on our part of the bargain. Here is the reason, Gyan has already exposed himself and is shattered at the moment. What else can we do to him that could possibly surpass what he has already done to his person? Do we need to console with him as others have done or send him greetings from Lucifer? I feel deeply sorry for Gyan's demise but hey, what is bound to happen would happen. We would rather make hay whilst the sun shines.

Now, let us visit the issue involving the captainship band which Mr. Raymond made it clear in his article as whom the band was supposed to go to. The band was given to Andrea Ayew during the Tunisian match. That I learnt was a mistake which Asamoah Gyan did according to the sources from the camp. He was rather supposed to give the band to Anthony Annan since Annan was still on the field when Asamoah Gyan was taken out. You see when you ask questions, answers are humbly given.

Anthony Annan was called for his first national assignment on March, 20th 2007, whilst Andrea Ayew was called almost five months later, August, 7th 2007. Comparing their attitudes, both on and off the field, which also is among the criteria in appointing a captain for a team, initially I thought Dede had a single disciplinary action against him and was the reason he wasn't allowed to participate in one of the friendly matches last year. Contrary to my thoughts, it wasn't so. He was given a rest instead by the technical team. This means both of them have behaved well. However when matches played is taken into consideration, Annan had played 52 as compare to Dede's 37 when the incident occurred.

So Mr. Raymond Yaboah, there was an error, a beautiful one at that, committed in good faith which a timely correction was made during the match against Tunisia. But then, this wasn’t an issue which the writer should waste his time on polluting people’s mind about. These little things exposed as you deem fit to put in print does sow seeds of discord that would not augur well for the stars now or never.

Note: Kindly Read The Finished Part To This Article

In All Things, Get Wisdom, Get Understanding.

Ransford Frempong Peprah (Football Analyst)

Rnsfdpeprah@yahoo.com