The head coach of Ghana’s Black Stars, James Kwasi Appiah says he is often baffled when people think of him as a weak manager only because he is a quiet person.
The Black Stars coach tasked with the responsibility of qualifying the national team to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations says he is firmer than people think and thus should never be underestimated.
Speaking on Ghanaweb’s Sports Check programme, Appiah said “Yes, I think people underestimate me because of my calm nature. They think oh maybe he doesn’t talk, he doesn’t act, and he’s quiet but you see human nature you could be very quiet but when it comes to work or other things you need to be very serious with it.
Appiah has often been criticized as a man who is unable to manage big players or players or players with egos that need special treatment but the former Asante Kotoko coach says that is never the case.
“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 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 Kwasi Appiah.
One the recent criticism that he has received regarding his call-ups into the national team, Appiah says he owes no one explanations for his national team call ups.
The 58-year old received a lot of backlash from the public after his last call-up for the Black Stars’ game against Kenya when he left out in form Alfred Duncan and Jordan Ayew.
The Black Stars went on to lose the game, and many pointed fingers at the absence of some perceived key players as the cause of the defeat. But Kwesi Appiah disagrees and believes every player he calls deserves a place in his team.
“I hear some of my colleagues all the time saying I need to explain my call-ups. Ghana has got thousands of players,” he told Ghanaweb.
“There are so many players on my data, so much so that I can sit here and call about five different teams. And that is excluding the locally based players.
“There are so many players, so if I’m going to explain why a player is not playing every time we have a match, how can I explain that?
“I believe that if I should even explain, then it should be to fellow technical people who will understand.”
The Black Stars’ next game is a 2019 AFCON qualifying doubleheader against Sierra Leone in October.
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