…Joe Addo’s name pops up
Is it now sad that at a period when they are celebrating their 102 anniversary that glorious Accra Hearts of Oak should be hit by a problem of sacking the head coach and even not knowing who to replace him?
The news is that on Friday November 8, three days to November 11, a day that is so special to Hearts fans because it it their birth day, the head coach of the phobia club was asked to leave the team.
His crime? Nobody can tell, because there are different versions of the reasons for his parting with the club he saved from relegation in 2012 when they were lying 14th and he took them to the fifth position.
For this 2013 season, he has been able to keep the second position, giving the defending champions, Asante Kotoko no breathing space with a hot chase. Before the league started, coach David Duncan proposed to the directors and management of Hearts of Oak to get him some particular players whom he feels can win the league for Hearts after five years. He did not achieve his request, though some good players were recruited and he had to use his psychological and tactical power to groom them into the type that can withstand the pressure and taste of Hearts fans.
When all was going smoothly in spite of some tumbles, he was asked the leave at a time that the points gap to reach or out stage Asante Kotoko was only one point. When he was not there at the Robert Mensah Stadium in Cape Coast, because Hearts cannot play at the Accra Sports Stadium due to an indefinite ban, the team lost to Medeama SC.
Now the league is on break for the WAFU Cup competition and Hearts must make amends by finding the replacement of coach David Duncan. From the grape vine, we hear that 18 coaches have so far been approached for the Hearts top job. Among them is Joseph Addo, a former player of the club who played for the national teams and continued as a professional in Europe and later studied in the United States of America.
Addo is currently a member of the technical staff of Berekum Chelsea and also contributes to GTV Sports programmes.
Meanwhile, former coach Sir Cecil Jones Attuquayefio who was the most successful trainer of the club has appealed to the management and directors of Hearts to reinstate David Duncan.
Majority of Hearts of Oak fans have also called on the directors to bring back the sacked coach and return him to his post or they may cause disturbances that would make them uncomfortable.
