Savages! There We Go Again

You have to love the Ghanaian, at least for his fatally eternal inkling to press the self destruct button when nothing compels him to that choice. Yea, yea, yea, there must be something invitingly irresistible in fatal choices for us, as a people. That should be the surest explanation why we do things the way we do. I have been musing over why our science-defying, all-passionate football fans would want to hurry Kwesi Nyantakyi’s Football Association into firing only-yesterday-hero coach Claude Le Roy, ‘with immediate effect’, and I am beginning to grow weary of waiting for a single suggestion of who to succeed him. Elsewhere, the tradition dictates that the talking starts with suggested names of coaches deserving of the national job before the reason/reasons why the incumbent must go, or at least they come together. I will be the last to wish Le Roy continue in office and I do not intend to defend him. He is entirely responsible for his actions or the lack of them, and I saw the man fall on his own dagger long ago when the Black Stars fell to Cameroon at Ghana 2008. I do not think I am the only person who remembers Le Roy speak ahead of the games that for the Black Stars, anything short of the ultimate gold would amount to a failure. And I remember it was bronze the Black Stars won, not gold, at the ‘Host and Win’ games. What is the worth of a man’s words if they do not bind him? And before I get you confused, the propriety or otherwise of his ‘exploratory’ activities with Thabo Mbeki’s Bafana Bafana is not my instant headache. It is time to brainstorm and I invite cool heads. Fresh ways of doing things are needed, and in the present instance, fresh ways of dealing with Claude Le Roy and people we entrust with responsibility when we find them to have gone wayward, or grow no longer deserving of the challenge. So far we have been one-way and stale. The best of coaches the world over have at one time or the other faced the axe, or have actually been booted out of office when least expected, and Le Roy’s exit (apparently imminent), should not be too much of a surprise in a vocation as precarious as football coaching. Have we all not been around on this planet when the English FA parted company with Steve McClaren as England coach on November 22, 2007, when England failed to qualify for Euro 2008? That job loss, according to him, was “the saddest day” in his coaching career. Disappointment well expressed, but it still did not save McClaren from holding the shortest tenure for any England coach, after holding it for only 18 months. And while McClaren was being shown the door out of his four-year contract, there were talks already of Martin O'Neill and ex-Chelsea capo Jose Mourinho picking up the vacancy, plus Fabio Capello was personally putting in an application! And Capello himself, his classic case will baffle many for years to come. Spanish giants Real Madrid had for the first time since 2003, grabbed the Spanish League title under the Italian. 11 days after the feat, the door was let loose for the now 62-year-old. He was only in the first of his three-year contract. “German coach Bernd Schuster is expected to be signed as a replacement for Fabio Capello,” was the ‘reassuring news’ that generally accompanied the sacking announcement. How do you like that? The chorus of voices calling for the removal of the Black Stars coach have also attached ‘immediacy’ to the ‘edict’, so that by that order, Le Roy should cease forthwith to be in charge of the Black Stars. That is how we have lived our lives, precariously, over the years. I am yet to learn of one smooth transition at the Black Stars technical bench. The ‘norm’ is that we have always had to react to situations, when we have been stranded already. That is about putting the cart before the horse, isn’t it? Is it therefore any wonder that we have often found solace in the phrase, - wait until we get to the river, we will see about crossing it. Effectively, we have not crossed even one river, always stranded in the deep because at the time we expect to cross, no bridges have been in place. Come to think of it, the long journey to the World Cup after which we ‘lost’ our last national coach have been so precarious – from the days of Ralf Zumdick, Mariano Baretto, Bukhard Ziese, Jones Attuquayefio and Ratomir Dujkovic. What has been the transitional plan for any of them? NIL. Even in the instance of the disappointing exit of Ralf Zumdick, in whom so much hope had been invested by the Ben Koufie administration but who insisted of quitting to stay closer to his family and home, and therefore gave enough notice, it took some real scouting to bring on board Baretto, and of course left the Black Stars ‘fatherless’ for a while. We must have had enough, or we should. Now we need answers: who, as we push for the sacking of Le Roy, should replace him? You have an answer? Please send it to me at moroike274@hotmail.com. I bet the GFA will be dying to hear your suggestion, and the next time you hear another ask for a coaches head, ask him for his replacement, otherwise let the bad coach keep his job. A team cannot be better off without a coach than when it is with a bad one. Le Roy doesn’t appear to me to be our worst. Let’s see again next week.