Coach Herbert Addo is under nationwide criticism because majority of his squad to the Championship of African Nations (CHAN) were from Aduana Stars and Berekum Chelsea and both teams are also in Brong Ahafo Region. The question is this the first time a Ghana national team have been eliminated from the group stages of a tournament at the hands of a local coach? Ghanaians should tell us which kind of players Mr. Addo should have sent to the CHAN tournament?
The coach picked the best material the country have for the tourney so far as our local league is concerned. Chelsea are currently runaway Glo Ghana Premier League leaders and Aduana are league defending champions and it was this same materials they used to beat the so-called two most glamourous clubs in our league Kotoko and Hearts to attain these feats. And you can’t expect any quality coach to go and pick players from any club lying 14th or 6th position respectively on the league log. A section of Ghanaian supporters are against Herbert and his squad just because he used mainly players from Brong Ahafo for national assignment. We have to stop the tribalistic and political idea that continues to undermine our progress as a nation.
The nation put pressure on him to drop Aduana's goalkeeper who happened to be the best goalkeeper voted for an award last season because he had conceded against South Africa and when he put Sammy Adjei on for the Zimbabwe's game, what happened? Ghana lost the same 3 points. It seems when something good emerges from Brong Ahafo Region a section of people in this country abhor it but whether the country like it or not the league is being dominated by Brong teams and it will continue to time indefinite.
The problem of the Ghana CHAN team is not through any fault of the entire team and their technical staff but rather bigwigs of the Ghana Football Association (GFA). How can you compare Kenya's weather to that of Sudan? South Africa and Zimbabwe all reached the venue one week prior to the tournament and where were we at that time? It’s also worth knowing when the promise of $3,000 winning bonus was announced to the players? This was after the team had lost their first match to South Africa so motivation at the team camp was zero before the commencement of the tournament.
I was sad when I heard the so-called dribbling magician, Mohammed Polo trying to accuse Herbert Addo and his tactics and making unfounded allegations on Accra based radio station Happy FM that Aduana won last season's league with the help of referees. Somebody like Polo is making this unfounded allegations because he wants one of the national teams to coach. Polo was in the same era of Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata in their playing days, look at what Shehata has done as local coach for Egypt whilst Polo continues to only receive unnecessary fans as dribbling magician in Ghana.
Kudos to Hebert Addo and his boys, they have done what Napoleon couldn’t do. We were in Ghana when Hearts of Oak played an entire CAF Champions’ League campaign in 2006 without scoring a single goal, and when was the last time Asante Kotoko progressed beyond the first round of the same CAF Champions’ League? It’s very sad that we have crushed out at the very first hurdle without notching even a single point but once the CHAN tournament is there for the current best local players each country taking part in the tournament have, to me Herbert Addo sent the right materials.
