Inkoom stealth to the top

By David Kyei

The 2007/8 Onetouch premier league cruised to a technical end with the presentation of the coveted trophy to champion club, Asante Kotoko F/C, at an impressive ceremony at the Baba Yara Stadium last Sunday.

Whilst the players, the technical team, management and of course the fans celebrate and enjoy on such an occasion, it is not out of place that the contribution of the players especially be compared to enable all know how much energy and time the players contributed to the success story.

Much as the table reflects the contribution of the players to the total team effort, it must be emphasized that its intention is not to ridicule nor slight any player for doing less than the other.

Of the thirty matches played in the just ended season, Kotoko achieved her success not as a result of the contribution of an individual player, but had to rely on the general effort of thirty-seven players to complete.

Of the thirty-seven players used, Jordan Opoku played the most number of matches with 25caps going under his belt. However, injuries, substitutions and technical restraints did not make him the player with the highest number of playing time.

Despite the fact that he did not play the first three matches of the season due to the brouhaha that surrounded his transfer from Windy Professionals/Hasaacas to Kotoko, Samuel Inkoom did a stealth thing by joining the first team to become the most consistent performer for Kotoko with an impressive total of 2014 minutes of playing time, representing 74.5% of the total 2700 play time in thirty matches.

For the records, though Inkoom’s match caps of 23 were two games short of the 25 games by Jordan Opoku, he comes across as the player who was never substituted in a match. He however was rested and brought in during the last embers of the All Blacks –Kotoko match at the Swedru Park.

This record of Inkoom stood a stiff challenge from Harrison Afful who was also never substituted in a match for Kotoko.

The differences between the records of Harrison and Inkoom are that, apart from the different number of caps, Harrison’s is marred by his expulsion in the 8^th week league derby against King Faisal at the Baba Yara Stadium.

Another player, who but for his transfer to a Turkish club would have posed a threat to Inkoom's record is Adamu Mohamed. He started the season on a blazing note by playing full time consistently in the first ten matches of the season.

Adamu’s absence did not only affect his record, it most importantly affected the performance of Kotoko as it created a big vacuum at the back. Though Mark Sekyere seems to be stepping into his shoes, it remains to be seen how he will fully settle in that position as compared to Adamu.

Sekyere has shown that he will be a contender to high performance. This is amply judged from the fact that he has consistently played seven full matches for the period he was offered a chance in the first team.

One interesting feature that appears is that of Eric Opoku who made a total of 85 minutes from five appearances. Considered as one of the next generation players of Kotoko, the technical team may have taken a decision to gradually introduce him to premiership football.

Six players, Godfred Yeboah, Obiseseh, Baba Armando, Sam Arthur, Simon Martey and Mohammed Abdullah all played one match with varying playing times.

Of the Kotoko defence, Daniel Acquah comes in for mention as the only defender to have played more than ten matches without attracting a card from any referee.