Former players call for new vision for progress

By David Kyei

21-05-2010

Management of Asante Kotoko FC have been urged to come up with new techniques and methods that will make the club stand tall in stature to match up her huge clout as the African club of the century.

They have also been asked to be proactive in striking the right alliances on the international front to make the club fully benefit from globalization of the sport of football.

These points were the crust of a meeting held between members of the Kotoko contingent that travelled to London last week to receive the IFFHS award on the club as the African club of the century and an emerging Kotoko supporters union in London.

Members of the emerging supporters union is drawn from Ghanaians from all walks of life with an aficionado for the fabulous Reds. However, the core of the group is a working class of former players and other well-intentioned media and business practitioners.

At the meeting that was held in a very Ghanaian environment at the cosy Aburi Gardens Restaurant on St. James Street, Walthanslow, the members of the Ghanaian group who are also the executives by default, took turns to speak out issues that they said had bothered them for a while and had always been looking for an opportunity to voice them out.

According to the members, they were not enthused about the lacklustre performance of the team in the just ended Glo Premier league and wondered why despite the high class players that had been recruited for the season, the team could not do well.

A former stalwart defender and a member of the first African cup winning team, Dan Amo, was full of disappointment with the team.

“Having played the team and knows what it takes to be a Kotoko player and the challenges it bring, I must say that I have the feeling that our current crop of players do not know and appreciate the huge pedigree of the club they are playing for”.

“I want to believe that they are so much consumed by the huge financial gains that they have  benefited from at Kotoko that they seem not to know what to do. To help them, I want them to know that if they play their hearts out and win laurels for the club, they would be hugely rewarded that they are presently enjoying”.

“To the management team, I prescribe unity of purpose and a need for them to move out of the traditional ways they have been used to over the years and explore the modern and scientific trends in football management that are known to bring results on and off the pitch”.

Taking his turn, the right back in the 1975/75 Ghana league season, C.K Gyamfi decried the neglect of the Kotoko youth policy and pointed to the neglect as the reason for difficulty in getting quality and committed players for the club.

“During our time, the Youth team was called Anokye and it was there that some of the players who later on in their careers took Kotoko on their shoulders were discovered and groomed”.

“The place was a factory for the club because it was from there that the players were imbibed with the Kotoko tradition and spirit. Now with the neglect of the side, I wonder how we could bet a team of committed young players whose preoccupation would be to fully serve Kotoko”.

“As quickly as possible, management should take a look at the youth side by taking good care of the players and making sure that they are well-groomed for the security of Kotoko’s future.

“We cannot continue the tradition of doing the wholesale and blanket recruitment that makes the club start every new season with debts”.

Other members, Roland Kankam, a.k.a Bambola, Kwaku Owusu Frimpong of Rainbow Radio, Agyenim Boateng, and Kofi Boitey in their respective speeches one way or the other shared in the observations made by the retired players and urged management to act fast to salvage the sinking image of the club.

“Kotoko is all we have got as Ghanaians and lovers of football and so I plead with management to bring back the lost glory. We are prepared to use all the links available to us to help the club, but it will take the decision to work hard to help convince would be sponsors of the club,” Bambola, a football events organizer chipped in.

Management member in charge of operations, Ben Nti, used the occasion of the meeting to explain some management policies to them and also assured them to carry their concerns across for the betterment of the club.

The meeting waged on till late and early into last Sunday’s morning.