I don't have difficulties managing big players - Kwasi Appiah

Coach of the senior national team, Black Stars, James Kwasi Appiah has rubbished claims that he finds it difficult to control the senior players in the team.

The Ghanaian gaffer, who led the senior national team to the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament and lost 2-1 to Portugal said coaching the Black Stars is never a difficult task for him to have difficulties in managing the senior ones in the team.

According the 56-year-old former Black Stars skipper, even though people perceive him to be strong-armed regarding management of the senior players, they’re not issues that pin him down because they don’t understand his tactics.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Ghanaweb’s Sport editor, Daniel Oduro on “Sports Check”, Mr. Appiah noted that, “you see these are some of the things that if you’ve played before, they wouldn’t be issues that will pin me down, if it’s difficult to handle the players then then I don’t think I’m qualified to be a head coach”.

“The important thing is that, sometimes the coach has to take a decision that is different from what they expect, and they think the coach is taking that decision because he wants to take some particular player out but I know what I am doing”, he explained.

Coach Kwesi Appiah, who played at the left-back position for the Black Stars and Kumasi Asante Kotoko, said no one is perfect and that is the more reason why the senior players need to be given chances to prove themselves or watch them mess up and realise their faults when the young players compete and take their positions.

“At the end of the day, once these big players notice there are something’s that are not right and starts making them backslide and there is a young competitor and they might take their positions from them, they then “kill” themselves and stop disobeying, irrespective of your status”, Said Kwesi Appiah.



It shall be recalled that Kwasi Appiah led Ghana to the 2014 World Cup where the Black Stars were booted out of the tournament in the group stages for the first time in history. Ghana’s abysmal performance at the tourney was partly blamed on Kevin Prince Boateng, Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien as the masterminds of problems in Ghana's World Cup. Many opined that the coach could not managed the ego of certain players who went to the extent dictating to the coach to drop goalkeeper Adams Kwarasey.

Watch the full interview below: