A tale of Paa Kwasi’s time at Kotoko

After the uninspiring 1-1 draw against Heart of Lions in Kumasi last week, the management of the club asked Head Coach, Paa Kwasi Fabin, to proceed on leave following a series of poor results.

Different interpretations have been given to that directive but the fact remains that Kotoko has not parted ways with the coach.

In the following write-up, Jerome Otchere looks back at the results chalked by Kotoko under the tutelage of Paa Kwasi Fabin. Please read on.

Twenty-four league matches, 7 wins, 6 defeats, 11 draws; and two Champions League defeats. That is the record Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin chalked at Kumasi Asante Kotoko until he was asked by management to proceed on leave last week.

Many have since interpreted that directive to be an indirect way of dismissing him for non-performance. However, management is yet to be definite on whether the coach has been sacked or is just on leave.

Coaches are hired and fired. That is what the 2008/2009 Coach of the Season said in some media interviews last week. He said he would be prepared to part ways with Kotoko provided some outstanding payments are cleared by management and that is if the club really does not want him.

While that is left to management to sort out, a look at Coach Paa Kwasi’s record from October 18, 2009 to March 31, 2010 reveals a gloomy picture of unimpressive performance.

A whopping 11 drawn games coupled with 7 painful losses and an early CAF Champions League exit certainly was not what Kotoko fans and the coach expected when he accepted to steer the technical affairs of Kotoko.

As fate would have it, Paa Kwasi failed to make good his promise of taking the club to a higher level. He did not have the faintest of idea about the quality of players that have been recruited. If he really had, it was that of Gideon Baah and Omar Gariba which he disclosed at the press conference to unveil him in September that they had been brought in on his request.

Some people perhaps had a premonition of what would befall the coach and therefore advised him not to take the Kotoko coaching job. His own assertion that those who encouraged him to come to Kotoko were far less than those who urged him to decline the offer confirms that Paa Kwasi Fabin was bent on defying the odds that were hugely against him.

His performance ought to be put in the right perspective here. He was appointed on September 29, 2009 and the league commenced on October 18. It was barely three weeks to the start of the

He indeed started work at a time that barely anything had been done to get the team to a good start in the season. With a total of 48 players under his guidance, the coach talked loudly of practical difficulties in spending quality time with that large number of players during training sessions.

The season kicked off in no time and Paa Kwasi did not have his team in place. Admittedly, the time was too short to put a team together though he had given the assurance that he would do that. His repeated choruses that he would settle on the core of his team in the quickest possible time went down well with the teeming supporters of the club.

He asked that Assistant Coach Johnson Smith be replaced with his choice Yaw Acheampong – an ex-Black Stars player. There is no doubt that Coach Paa Kwasi worked hard with Yaw Acheampong.

However, in totality management upon careful evaluation of the latter’s performance concluded that he has added nothing new to the performance of the club. Consequently, Yaw Acheampong was sacked with Paa Kwasi starting the second round without an assistant. The reshuffling of players by the coach continued after every game despite strong criticisms from certain quarters.

 Fifteen league matches passed and Paa Kwasi had still not settled on his team. Added to that, many questions were asked about the effectiveness of his substitutions not to talk of his tactical orientation. The large size of his team was cut down from 48 to 35 with the commencement of the second round of the Glo Premier League but with the CAF Champions League campaign ending in a fiasco in Accra; Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin’s record was not getting any better.

His story in the league started with a 1-1 draw game against Great Olympics in Accra followed by an unconvincing 2-1 win over Eleven Wise In Kumasi. Though some supporters were not too impressed with the 1-1 result he chalked in the difficult encounter against Ashantigold at Obuasi, certain unfortunate developments in the match overshadowed any talk about underperformance.

An unacceptable 2-2 home draw against Berekum Arsenal followed by a 3-1 humiliation against Liberty Professionals at the Ohene Djan Stadium earned the coach and his players more public disapproval. Kotoko recorded a 2-1 win over Real Tamale United (RTU) in Kumasi. However, the post-math talk focused on the team’s inability to concentrate which led to RTU’s late goal.

An away defeat to Heart of Lions, a home draw against King Faisal; Hearts of Oak’s 1-0 win in Accra and the rather painful home draw to Hasaacas clearly indicated that Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin and his charges were finding it difficult to maintain their composure in the competition.

The spectacle of unimpressive results continued and not even the 3-3 away draw to Edubiase FC, the hard fought 1-0 win over Aduana Stars at home and the 1-0 win over Bechem Chelsea at the Sunyani Coronation Park could salvage Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin and Kotoko’s sinking image.

The decline in fortunes was not that swift but it was hard for supporters of the club to bear the pain even in that slow motion of events as Kotoko drew again at home to All Stars before recording a face-saving 1-1 draw against Kessben FC at Abrankese to end the first round.

Two wins and a draw in the first 3 matches of the second round cushioned the team quite well on the league log but the fall at Dormaa sparked another drive down the lane. The assurances that things would be well resurfaced following a 2-0 win over Edubiase FC in Kumasi. Much was expected from the team away to struggling Sekondi Hasaacas yet against the dying Giants of the West, the best Kotoko could earn was a 1-1. Two defeats to Hearts and King Faisal all at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium and plus another home draw to Heart of Lions left management with little choice than to ask Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin to proceed on leave.

Perhaps Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin cannot be blamed entirely for the poorly unstable performance of the team considering the fact that there were matches that Kotoko’s chances of winning was purely thwarted by the inglorious performance of referees and their assistants.

There were also matches that the bad performance of the players practically let the team down but if indeed a coach is as good as the results he chalks then may be the decision to ask the coach to go on leave cannot be faulted that much.