Out & About with David Kyei:

A Victory for Unity

5th June 2007

I know readers would be wandering why I have chosen to come out this day instead of the regular Fridays. Well, I have chosen to that because it is always good to bow when the applause was high, and since the iron of the massive massacre of the ‘meow, meow’ team, Hearts of Oak is still hot, I want to take advantage of the situation and strike the iron to shape the object the way I want it to be.

I am not the least surprised at the way supporters of the club have been parting themselves on the back because they deserve it. But we should also not leave out all the various departments of the game of football in the club, because they all contributed to the success story.

Praise must be given to God Almighty for his mercies for the team, to Otumfuo for bringing order in management, to management for motivating the up-field team, to the technical team for their direction and bold decision to present the team they did, the players for making nonsense of all the noise of Hearts of Oak and their supporters and finally to the various supporter groups and circles for their vigilance and commitment to Kotoko.

Yes we all deserve the praise because what we did last Sunday did not happen by chance, but the culmination of our determination to end the frustration that the team and her supporters have had to encounter in the past.

Kotoko in the past season lost matches that we did not in any way had to loss, so did we drop some points in the just ended league that we did not phantom what really went wrong.

Whilst we in various ways had ascribed various reasons for the defeats I always insisted that the reason was one and one only; Disunity!

The team was so fragmented on various lines to the extent that it was permeating into the main playing body and so the club lost the most important ingredient in the success story of every serious minded football team be they in Mars, Venus, Pluto or Earth; LUCK!

Luck is the basic thing that every team needs to be able to be successful and so the absence of it will always not be palatable for the emotions of their supporters.

The team can declare a huge budget for the purchase of the most talented and elegant players in the country and even on the continent, but if they lack luck, every effort they put into practice in their matches will come to nought. It is therefore not a surprise to see a team play so well and yet fail to secure the most important thing for the playing of the game; results.

Chances will go wasted, whilst seemingly cheap balls end up in the team’s net.

In all these, what we should not lose sight of is the fact that luck does not happen in a vacuum, nor likes to stay in an environment of bickering and disunity. We really have to work at it and make sure that it stays to the end of the reason for which we sought for it.

It is therefore necessary that Kotoko follows the simple principle relating to the continual stay of luck in our team; UNITY.

Let us allow unity to prevail and I bet us all that we shall for the most part of the year smile and celebrate because luck will always shine and smile on us.

Taking you back to the third paragraph of this piece, I will say that the people who have been mentioned for praise one way or the other have been the reason why the millions of supporters of the club are smiling today.

Internal bickering at the various fronts of the club’s structures really militated against the success and progress of the club because there was no conducive environment for luck to reside. There was no unity of purpose, and so was the high incidence of pull him down and the obnoxious attitude of lets wait and see if they can succeed. In such an environment, there was no way we would record the kind of success that we have been looking for.

This is the reason why we should thank His majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for the confidence he reposed in the management by allowing them to continue with their work for the club. That action by the King was the catalyst for the fruits that we have started harvesting.

Many people had laid in ambush for the Kotoko job to the extent that the people in the saddle also had to do their best to defend their interests in the club. This therefore might have resulted in the many squabbles that the club recorded.

Having withered the storm and given management the assurance of stability, the people who created confusion behind the scenes have had to swallow their shame and give Kotoko the chance to see progress.

The result of Otumfuo’s action is the renewed strength in the various fronts of the club that has seen the circles rekindling their front to make sure that they remain the backbone of the club.

Any one who observed the build up to last Sunday’s match would see that a lot of work went into the success of the club in the said match.

First was the number of people who turned up for the club’s training sessions during the last week. The huge turn up at the training sessions really served as a motivation for the playing body. It gave a sense of direction to the team that, the fans were very much interested in the match and so they would not accept any thing other than a resounding victory.

Whilst people argued that the huge turn up of supporters at the training grounds was going to impact negatively on the players, I was of the opinion that it was what the players needed because in the past, Kotoko has prepared for tough and high profile matches without the presence of their supporters.

This to me was not good enough because it left the team in a situation where they could just go and play the way they wanted, and come back to enjoy their stay in the Garden City irrespective of the score line. With the new development, the players should now know that they are being watched by the supporters and so they should not be disappointed.

Talk about the fruits of unity and the contribution of the supporters cannot be easily grossed over. This was one particular match that all the circles of Kotoko were for once seen to be working hard to ensure that Kotoko won the match.

Talk about efforts of Nana Kwame and his colleagues from Accra, Hannah Bennin and her group from Cape Coast, Kwasi Nyantakyi and his workaholics from Kumasi, Oppong Brenya and his men from Sunyani, the western region caucus, the Northern region caucus, the Eastern region men and all the other regions, and you will know what I am talking about.

They liaised so well with management and the technical team to ensure that Kotoko stayed ahead of the mind-games that were being played by Hearts of Oak ahead of the match.

The most important of their efforts was their determination to stay alert through out the week to ensure that no bad omen befell Kotoko.

Much as I do not believe that there is another way of seeking success other than hard work and a good mental preparation, I also believe that it is always important to break the psyche of our opponents by removing and destroying all the charms and amulets that the opponents believe in and so rely so much on.

It is a matter of simple mind-games, and so it will be for the good of the club that we always stayed on top of the whole exercise. What readers may not know is that, the removal of buried cat from the stadium before the match did a big blow to the psyche of Hearts of Oak because on numerous occasions, I overheard their senior officials complaining about how “Kotoko was spreading lies about they burying a cat at the stadium”.

The iron of the conversation I eavesdropped was that, they were talking about a buried cat when their team was down by 1-2.

What worried me was the fact that they had chosen to talk about something else when their team was being battered and sent to the cleaners.

Or could it be that they had given up on any hope of coming back into the game especially when they were being outplayed. It was at this point that I realised how we had beaten them to their mind-games.

As a firm believer in the power of positive thinking and the need to stay united even in the fact if difficulties and frustration, I wish to advice that the circles close their ranks and work towards the success of the club.

They should see the current developments as a call to action and so they dare not fail the supporters of the club who are worried and hungry for success.

The circles should rise and be counted because they form the backbone of Asante Kotoko F.C.  Their action or inaction directly affects the fortunes of the club for the good or bad of it and so they should choose the right way and make Kotoko great.

As a proud member of the Men’s Ministry of Assemblies of God, Ghana, I think our motto has a lot to tell Kotoko supporters and circles.

The soul inspiring motto is all about a call on men to take action. i.e,

Men!

Action! (Loud one)

Men!

Action! (Another loud one)

Action!

Now! (Louder)

Action!

Now! (Louder)

Action!

Now, now, now, now, now… (Accompanied by stomping of feet)

Yes, that is the king of attitude I wish the circles to have. They are the action bases of the club and so will have to work even harder to take action to make the team as big as we all want it to be.

This is the more reason why I would like to advice the people who have been fanning circle disunity for the attainment of their selfish interests to desist from that with immediate effect because some of us will soon be descending hard on them for the pain they are bringing on Kotoko through their nefarious activities.

Kotoko is indeed the greatest club in Ghana, but may be to remind our selves as the power and action base of the club, the circles should pass a resolution to add to their slogans; adaptations of the Assemblies of God Men’s Ministry’s and adapt it to

Circles!

Action!

Circles!

Action!

Action!

Now!

Action!

Now!

Action!

Now, now, now, now, now……

God bless us all.