Coach Bash sets targets for the future

Correspondent:  David Kyei, Kumasi

26th June 2007

Having successfully led Kotoko to win their second Ghalca Top 4 trophy, the head coach, Bashir Hayford, has his eyes set on what lies ahead of his team in the coming days and months.

According to the coach who goes into the record books as the only coach to have won the tournament with two different clubs, with the first being Kpando based Hearts of Lions, he was happy that he had been able to win the trophy, “it makes a big statement for the club that we are still a force to recon with despite the way people have tried to rubbish the modest gains we made in the league. We had a lot to militating against us in the league hence our position.

The score line in last Sunday’s match not withstanding, he expressed joy with the performance of his team, which he has described as the team for the future.

“It is a fact that we paraded mostly young and inexperienced players who had it tough coping with the tension that matches against Hearts of Oak are associated with, but I must say that they did not in any way disappoint me with their performance”.

“It was clear from the match that we were on top and that is a good point to start from. It only gives me hope and joy that we have these young players ready to fight till their last breath to ensure that they always secured victory for the club”

“I have been watching their countenance at both training sessions and in matches and I must say that they are a group of players who are very hungry for success. It doesn’t matter the result that they are securing for the club presently. What I am looking forward to in them is their future as stars with promise to shine and bring greater benefits to Kotoko”

To him, the team is gradually getting in their strides and will therefore concentrate on his main line activity to bring success to the fans despite the grand design and scheming by some people to rubbish the gains that he has been making with Kotoko.

“I am happy with the fact that my players keep improving day after day. It therefore gives me hope that we are on the right path in achieving our set goals. We may have lost our last match in the Top 4, but I must say that we have done more than enough to deserve if not any thing, an encouragement for the players to continue with whatever they have been doing good for the club”

Identifying the act of goal scoring as one of the challenges in the team, Coach Bash says he has his hands on the problem and so will be designing more programs to arrest that.

“Goal scoring has indeed been a problem to the team as evidenced by the numerous chances that we squandered. We are going to make sure that by the time the season starts, Kotoko will not be lacking in quality goal poachers”

After the Kotoko-Hearts of Oak match at the Sunyani Coronation Park last Sunday, many supporters complained about the fact that the team lacked the inclusion of experienced players hence their inability to match up the Hearts of Oak tricks during the game, but to the man with the responsibility to come up with battle plans for the club, that accusation is wrongly placed.

“I do not know what those making the accusations mean by experienced players because as far as I am concerned and any good coach is concerned, only players with the right attitude and input at training gets selected. I work with players who see themselves as professionals and so use the right approach to get their problems solved. I will not like to fall prey to any attempt by anyone to blackmail or sabotage any on. Hence my caution in the selection of the players I use for matches”

“I also want to tell all player selection magicians who always talk of how a different player would have performed if used in matches to make their expertise available to me and I will use them. To come to tell me after a match as to how other players would have performed if used is some thing that I wouldn’t want to talk about. As I said before, if by their calculations they get to know that a player can score as many goals in a match for us, they should tell me ahead of time so that I prepare him for it, because after all, it is all about goals. Other than that, they should allow me to do my work in peace,” he sarcastically concluded.