Don't take Armah back

A former Chairman of Accra Hearts of Oak, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe, remembered for his revolutionary style that led to the emergence of Hearts’ Musical Youth which unearthed talents like the late lethal Shamo Quaye, has appealed to the management and directors of the club not to accept former stalwart defender, Emmanuel Armah “Senegal,” back to the team.

“Armah was suspended on several occasions when he was with the club due to indiscipline which has now become part and parcel of the boys he left behind,” he alleged. Speaking in an interview with the Graphic Sports on Armah’s purported return to the Phobian fold, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe noted that Armah’s attitude derailed the success of the club during his playing days with Hearts, adding that management will find it tough to control the players if Armah is allowed to rejoin them since club’s officials are even struggling to shape the boys.

“Apart from the various suspensions, he was also expelled from the team on two separate occasions, while all the clubs he played for after leaving Hearts also kicked him out on the same grounds of indiscipline,” Dr Nyarho-Tamakloe emphasised.

He explained that Armah, apart from sowing the seed of indiscipline in Hearts, also displayed the same awful attitude when he played for Holy Stars, Goldfields and Great Olympics and added “no doubt he was banned from playing for six months by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for attacking a referee on the field.”

“To me, he is going to create problems for the team if he is allowed back into the team. He is a senior player with enormous influence and might use that as an advantage to create confusion in the team,” he stressed.

Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe, who directed the affairs of the club with revolutionary zeal during the Joe Addo and the late Shamo Quaye era in the late 80s said it would be in the interest of management, directors, playing body and the teeming fans of Hearts if Armah is rejected. He said he has no personal hatred against the player but his concern is only to ensure the survival of the club.

“I don’t even know Armah personally. However, it is important that management takes a firm decision not to readmit him and be guided by the fact that somebody who destroys a team should not be admitted back into the team,” he intimated.

Recounting a similar event during his tenure of office, Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe said that when he sacked the current deputy coach of the club, Ofei Ansah, Sampson Lamptey and Hesse Odamptey, among others on the basis of indiscipline, he stuck to his decision in spite of the calls for clemency from numerous quarters.

According to him, he was later vindicated when Mr Ato Austin, then Secretary of Youth and Sports and one of the forces that pressed him to rescind his decision, wrote formally to congratulate him for taking that bold initiative. He said Armah has absolutely nothing new to offer the club and should therefore not be entertained near the playing body to save the club from any confusion or possible danger.