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 To Nigeria (Agege to be precise) and back
7th June 2007
By Sylvester Asare-Owusu
This was my first visit to Nigeria and to be honest, I was not impressed by what I saw. I do not know if it was because our stay was for only three days. But definitely I was expecting to see something that lived to our Nigerian brothers billing of their country.
Our match against Enyimba, although a friendly one was fast-paced and a very interesting match. At the end of it all, what I would say was that the way the teams played was an actual reflection of their status in African football. I would wish that this becomes a permanent feature on our calendar (whereby) at the end of every season, we may be invited by the organisers to entertain our supporters at an agreed venue. This can be expanded to include two elite teams from West and North Africa. If this is organised very well, the monetary benefits will go a long way to bridge that long gap between our revenue and expenditure.
GHALCA TOP 4
This season’s GHALCA Top 4 for me has been one of the most interesting in recent memory. The competition is so fierce that the small teams want to disgrace some of the established ones. This is good for the growth of Ghana football. I am also of the firm belief that at the end of it all, very good talents are gong to emerge and our “obroni” coach Claude le Roy is going to have a pool of talents to select from to join our national team.
Current moments, they say are timeless. You will therefore agree with me that I cannot talk about Top 4 without passing some few comments on our match with Hearts of Oak. on the whole it was a very entertaining match. Indeed, it is worthy of note that the Kotoko squad that was paraded had only one player who was a member of the Kotoko team that when we lost 1-3 to Hearts at the same venue. Also, Kotoko played at full strength for the entire duration of the match. This, plus the blend of youthful exuberance and experience paraded on the day won the match for Kotoko. but to be very honest to myself, the commitment and determination of my boys was something I have not seen in a long time and for us, it was very refreshing and will be be remembered by Kotoko faithfuls for a long time to come. Kudos boys!
Let me say that the Top 4 competition is being used by the technical team to assess the new players to enable the Bashir Hayford led technical team to select the final 35 players that will be used next season.
The Youth team
Management has decided to establish a youth team that is going to be used to feed the senior team. It has been observed that Kotoko has never benefited from the U-20 team formed some years ago. Most of the players in the U-20 team had managers and therefore were not Kotoko players. as a result of that anytime Kotoko needed a player from the Kotoko youth team, a manager would pop up demanding huge sums of money from Kotoko. This is after Kotoko had used her own resources to train and develop the talents of these young players. Management has decided that this will be a thing of the past. now, the youth team will be under a different management that will be appointed in due course and it will operate independent of the senior team. It should be noted however that the youth team management would be under the supervision of the management team headed by Sylvester Asare-Owusu.
We would like to build the youth team to the standard of the likes of ASEC Mimosas of Cote D’Ivoire and that of Feyenoord Academy so as to feed the Kotoko senior team and the national junior teams. We have realised that we need to inject young blood into the Kotoko set up and this can only be done with the formation of a youth team. This will save management huge sums of money used annually to poach players to the senior team.
National Circles Delegates Congress
Management in consultation with the national executives of the Kotoko circles have decided that the national delegates congress should take place on the 9th of June 2007(that is, tomorrow) at the National House of Chiefs Conference room, Manhyia. This Congress will be used to deliberate on a number of issues that will push the club to greater heights., management has observed that the Kotoko circles are no longer vibrant or buoyant as they used to be. There is therefore the urgent need to revive these circles and empower them to be able to assist management in running the club and to be able to mobilise enough funds to save the team from the financial difficulties that have engulfed the club. As management, we believe strongly that the team belongs to the circle members and they therefore have a stake in the running of the club. we would therefore like to use this congress to chart a new path for Asante Kotoko .management needs he support of the club’s supporters and together with a commitment to serve Kotoko and with a united front, Kotoko s going to be the team to beat next season.
The performance of the players in the matches played recently gives us hope that the Porcupine spirit, the “Kum apem a apem beba” spirit is back and there is no turning back. All hands should be on deck to make Kotoko the greatest team in Ghana and Africa.
Fabulous, the best!
By Sylvester Asare-Owusu
Reporter: Thomas Boakye
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