It would be unfair to say six time Ghanaian league champions, Accra Hearts of Oak, are in crisis. The best description for the Phobians at this stage - they have gone two straight games and lost both - is that they are going through a bad patch.
Nothing illustrated that better than the anger with which some of them reacted to last Saturday’s defeat by emerging rivals Liberty Professionals.
Coach Herbert Addo needed police escort to the stadium car park to be able to move his car home. But not even that could prevent the fans from shouting their abuse as he made his way to the dressing room after the match.
All sorts of insults, most of them unprintable, were directed at him and you sensed it required a strong mind like his to keep his head down and not talk back.
The Hearts fans, for whom success has come as a matter of course in the last few years, are worried about the way things have gone lately.Two sundays ago, they were beaten fair and square by Kumasi Asante Kotoko, their bitterest rivals. And then just last Saturday, they were handed a painful 1-0 defeat by Jones Attuquayfio, the man who led them to their 2000 African champions league title.
The painful truth for most Phobians is that the players, with just about two weeks left for the commencement of their African Cup campaign, are showing little form to convince them that they can make an impact similar to what they did under Jones.
Success in Africa is all that matters to Herbert. He said recently that “it would mean nothing if we win all our matches in the LG Top 4 and fail in Africa.”
After two straight first round exits, Africa cup success is something all Hearts fans aspire to, but unlike Herbert, losing to Kotoko and Liberty enroute to achieving that is unthinkable.
So they accused a coach who won them the league title in his first year as being technically bankrupt and questioned his professional competence when they were singing praises to his name recently.
Reactions like Saturday’s to defeat bring a smile to Herbert’s face. He has been in this business long enough to know that based on how results go, fans would either crucify or praise you.
But he admits the game against Liberty was poor. Hearts just didn’t get to play and the coach admitted fully to that. Where he and the fans disagree is who must take responsibility for the poor show.
The fans say they lost primarily because of his selection policy. They questioned, for instance, why Charles Taylor did not play at all. Why too has he persisted with Princeton Owusu Ansah when he has proven he is short on quality while the brilliant Stephen Tetteh rots on the bench?
The Taylor case is particularly thorny. There have been reports in pro-Hearts newspapers about an attempt by Kotoko to buy the player and the player’s preparedness to go. It just did not come in the form of reports, it was accompanied by a great deal of vilification too. One headline screamed “The Arrogance of Charles Taylor”.
So the player stayed away from training, according to the coach, and was as far as he is concerned not eligible to have played. The Liberty defeat has left Hearts needing to do all the catch up now in the LG Top 4 to stand any chance of winning.
The bigger problem for most Phobians however, is that the dip in form and confidence has come too close to the commencement of their African Cup campaign.
Duannes FC of Togo would come to town soon for the first in the qualification series for the money spinning African champions league stage.
In the last two years, Hearts have failed to go beyond the first round stage in that competition and signals that suggest they would fail again are being taken seriously.
It is why Captain Amankwah Mireku, who captained the side against Liberty, and was in the 2000 Champions League winning side, sees some good in the latest poor run of results.
“The way things have gone so far is a blessing in disguise. It just tells us that we must back up and I believe strongly that we would be able to,” he says.
Jones Attuquayefio thinks along similar lines. “I believe that by plotting this defeat, I have helped Hearts identify their weak points before they go into Africa. Once they work on those, you can always expect them to do mother Ghana proud.”
The weak points are evident: a poor defence, ineffective midfield, a coach whose selection provokes too much debate and a group of fans whose reaction to defeat is far from appropriate.
