Middendrop For Hearts?

Dethroned league champions, Accra Hearts of Oak are frantically pursuing the services of former Kumasi Asante Kotoko head coach, Ernst Middendorp after weeks of foot-dragging on the issue.

The quest to sign on the services of the German technical brain follows yesterday?s effective dismissal of Herbert Addo, the man who had been head coach of the Phobians for the last two years.

A meeting of the Board of Directors and management of the club last Monday concluded that Addo be axed, Soccer Express can confirm.

A statement issued by the club yesterday said Hearts had declined to extend the contract of Addo following a series of inconsistent performances which culminated in the loss of the league title for the first time in seven years and the failure of the club to perform creditably in the just ended Coca Cola Top Four tournament in which Hearts finished third.

But the most crucial decision taken at last Monday?s meeting, which was not made public, was a resolution to quickly contract the services of Ernst Middendorp.

Soccer Express sources within Hearts confirmed that it was unanimously decided to quickly stem the rapid decline of the club?s fortunes by acquiring the services of Middendorp.

Middendorp was proposed by the Herbert Mensah led Strategic Outsourcing Solutions (SOS Networx) as someone who could help turn around the recent failures of the Phobians but the deal never materialised following a lull in talks between the two organisations.

Though SOS Networx officials will not comment on the matter Hearts Public Relations Officer, Randy Abbey did not hide the fact that there had been communication between his management and officials of the brains trust since the management meeting last Monday.

He told the Soccer Express to go ?next door? to the SOS Networx offices to pick up feelers on plans the club had on the technical front.

This paper can confirm that Hearts have requested SOS Networx to do its utmost to convince Middendorp to join Hearts on terms already spelt out to Hearts by the German and his SOS Networx partners when he visited Ghana last month.

Middendorp was in Ghana in January to supposedly finalise a deal with Phobians but it never materialised and when Soccer Express tried to contact him in Germany yesterday he was unavailable. Family sources confirmed that he was in Cyprus pursuing a possible future career there.

The German did not hide his desire to coach Hearts when he was in town, because of the attractiveness of the club?s huge national stature as well as the prospects of propelling Hearts to the Champions League money zone.

Matters look gloomy for Hearts at the moment as with three weeks to go for their first Champions League match against bogey side, Stade Malien the team looks disjointed and in no readiness to face up to any meaningful competition.

PRO Abbey in response to a question on why Addo was not asked to go earlier to allow for smooth preparations towards the league and Africa said management had to convince itself that Addo was really unfit to continue handling Hearts and the Top Four was the final straw. He accused Addo of poor team selection and too much team experimentation and said "since we don?t think that is the best technical direction we decided to expend with his services."

It is unclear if Hearts is only using SOS Networx to source the services of Middendorp or they would be tapping into the managerial expertise of Herbert Mensah and his team who have left admirable legacies at Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak.