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Management commends team, but…
Players, technical officials and the backroom staff of uncrowned league champions, Kumasi Asante Kotoko F/C were the proud recipients of tones of commendations from members of the management team for their effort in working together to put the league title out of the reach of any group of contenders and pretenders.
They have also been assured of being honoured for their effort in a special awards night, which’s date, is yet to be determined.
These and many other issues were some of the points of focus in an extraordinary meeting between management on one hand, and the technical and playing body of the club on the other.
Opening the meeting, the Chairman Asare Owusu asked the meeting to feel free since it was a fine and rare opportunity for that forum to be organized to enable the players and their handlers seek clarification for issues and also brainstorm on the way forward for the club.
Mincing no words, he told the meeting in a plain and no unequivocal language that management was not the least content with the performances being put up by the players in recent times and cited some of the matches that the team lost as those that make it difficult for them to fully assess their commitment to the course of the club.
“Kotoko as an institution has a huge image and reputation to protect and so we look for nothing but the display and setting of excellent standards by our players”.
“This is the more reason why we saw and even still see the draw and lose to Hasaacas and Olympics as an unacceptable. If not for anything at all, we should have used those matches to score more goals to create more goal king contenders in addition to Bekoe”.
“My worry as the management board has been that your poor performances these days have opened up Kotoko to all sorts of uncomfortable comments and criticism from quarters that do not have any morale justification to talk about the running of football”.
To that end, he advised the players not to lose sight of the fact that the team still has the qualification into the group stages of the confederations cup to contend with, and also still have to get their acts together for next season.
“To state things straight, I will like to bring to your notice that qualification into the next stage of the confederations cup mean so much to management that we will not accept any excuses for a lapse in performance”.
“We have as one of our major targets for the year a qualification to play in the confederations cup and so it behoves on you the players to do more than 100% to ensure that we achieve that target. We in management will do all in our power to make things easy for your qualification. What is left is for you to do the physical exercise of banging in more goals to realize that,” he said.
Getting the full commitment and loyalty of subordinates is something that every successful administrator will have to have and so to ensure that Kotoko did not suffer the lack of it, chairman Asare Owusu gave a special reprieve to the playing body;
“Kotoko is a bigger institution that requires all her people to comply with a special code of loyalty. Since we do not want anyone to suffer the consequences of their disloyalty, I will like to announce that we will not be an impediment to any player who will decide to back off from the team for the reason that he cannot exude full loyalty”
“There have been rumours of disloyalty and internal bickering in the team and since all these work against the success of the team, I will want you all to know that management is ready to crush all such destabilizing factors,” he ended.
On his part, the director of finance and administration, George Amoako, pointed out that the poor performance of the team was getting the team into a huge financial difficulty.
According to him, the figures received from the Sports Council after the Kotoko Ashgold, Kotoko-Sportive matches are to say the least disheartening.
“My simple and short message to you is that, the players need to buck up because the poor showing besides not making fans happy is also costing Kotoko financially”.
“I was astonished to the bone to get the figures after the Kotoko sportive matches, and yet they were true. It was so disheartening to see that Kotoko got less than GH¢10,000 from the gates last Saturday at the Baba Yara Stadium”.
“What that figure tells me is that, the fans are disgruntled and have started demonstrating their angst by staying away from our matches”.
“In the face of this action by the fans, I will say that we have you have step up your performance to bring the fans back into the stands. We need the fans back because they are our financial backbone in our continental campaign”.
The director of operations, Jerry Asare, would not be left out of the meeting as he described the sudden change in the attitude of the players and a deplorable one.
As the man in charge of the upkeep of law and order in the team, he attributed the relapse in the performance to a slack in the enforcement of the disciplinary code of the team.
“After seeing you win match after match, we thought that you had gotten used to the strict enforcement of the code of ethics and so we stayed back a little to observe how you will behave without direct supervision”.
“But since you have shown that you will not be able to live up to expectation without the direct hand of direction of management, we are going to go back to the strict adherence era”
“And I will like to announce that the breaking of disciplinary codes will be met with a strict application of pinching punitive financial measures. We will like to assure you that we shall not relax in that aspect of the enforcement of the disciplinary codes”.
The registered players of the club who did not see league action were also assured that they would be given the chance in the remaining matches to prove their worth to management and the fans.
Patience was therefore prescribed to them since that was the only way they could withstand the frustration that is normally associated with such happenings.
A classical example of Opoku Nti having to understudy Kofi Badu for almost two seasons before getting a chance to play in the mainline team was cited to assure them that they still had a chance to make it into the team.
“Whilst you wait for your time to play, I will advice that you take your trainings seriously so that you do not blow it when you are called upon”.
For his cautious driving and safety on the travels around the country for matches, the Kotoko team bus driver, Akwasi Berchie, a.k.a ‘Bue wani wa, na hwe ade’ received a special commendation from management and has been assured of his due reward at the end of season awards dinner of the club.
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