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| PHOTO CREDIT:FOOTY-GHANA.COM |
At long last you are here with the lovely and
warmly welcoming people of GH. Ghanaians are warm people and very welcoming,
especially to any light-skinned person popularly referred to us “Obroni’. You
arrived in our beautiful land on Tuesday, 2 November, 2014 and as usual we say
“Akwaaba” welcome to you. Bra Grant, I believed the GFA officials treated with
you some local Ghanaian beer ‘Pito’and a local Ghanaian meal that I will
personally recommend to you waakye with goat meat and wele. It is very nice
when taken in the morning as breakfast between the hours of 6am to 10am
especially when it is been served in the leaves.
Well, Bra Grant enjoys it while it last.
Although Ghanaians are a warm and beautiful welcoming people, don’t forget the
reason why you are in this country. The nation’s HEART is in your hands, and by
heart I mean our national team, the Black Stars. Failure will mean
breaking our hearts, and trust me; you will not like the angry Ghanaian
football fan when he/she is disappointed.
Right now, it’s clear that you are Ghana’s
beloved national football team, the Black Stars coach. But bear in mind that,
the same people who are welcoming you are the same people who will make you
feel uncomfortable you fail to deliver.
I believe by now you know the kind of people
Ghanaians when it comes to football. They like giving excuses but they won't take your
excuses when you don’t bring AFCON home or other trophies and surprisingly, all
the twenty-five million people of Ghana are coaches so bear that too in mind
that they are great and professional tacticians.
Pressure has always been an integral part of
Ghanaians when it comes to sports specially, the national team, the Black
stars. The clock is ticking; there are only six or so weeks remaining to make your
chance at gold and glory. Everyone is fired up and tensions are running
high.
You have barely
six weeks to build a formidable team for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON),
Africa’s biggest football competition in Equatorial Guinea. And it is
unquestionably clear that, you are very good when it comes to organizing a team and I applauds you for that.
Bra Grant, you have few weeks to prepare the Black Stars for the AFCON. I
can sense the pressure on you already. Listening to an interview on ASEMPA FM,
the GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi said "All outstanding issues with Mr.
Grant have been cleared and we believe he is the right man for the job,”
Ghanaians are also saying that go do your best. But the actual meaning of those
words is that, go and bring the AFCON CUP. Ghanaians are hungry for cups now.
My advice to you is that, if you don’t want any
insult and problems please get the team to win the AFCON. Bra Grant, don’t be
comfortable with the idea thrown out by some individuals that
the time for you to prepare for the AFCON is
short, hence tasking you to win the AFCON is asking too much. Listen to me very
carefully; Ghana has performed extremely well in our last four AFCON
appearances. In 2008, when we hosted it, we qualified to the semifinals and won
bronze.In 2010, in Angola, Ghana made it all the way to the finals only to lose
1-0 to Egypt. In 2012, when the tournament was co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea
and Gabon, we made it to the semifinals and lost 1-0 to Zambia, the eventual
winners. The downhearted team lost the third place 2-0 to Mali.
History repeated itself a year after in South
Africa 2013. We made it once again to the semifinals, lost 3-2 to Burkina Faso
on penalties and lost the third place again to Mali with a 3-1 score line. In
four straight AFCON competitions, Ghana’s worst performance has been an
appearance in the semis. Don’t listen to anybody who says we don’t expect you to
win the competition they must be joking because if you don’t win you will regret coming to
Ghana.
As a sports writer and an ardent fan of the
national team, I will advise you to be your own man, as I indicate earlier,
that every Ghanaian, football fan or not during most important competitions
like world cup and AFCON automatically becomes a coach. You can verify this
information from the twenty-five million best sports writer CHRISTOPHER OPOKU.
Don’t hastate to contact Christopher Opoku He will give you all the information “filla”
inside out on sports issues in Ghana and beyond.
But remember, Bra Grant how long you will enjoy
your stay in Ghana will depend on you and your performance AFCON 2015. Once
again, Akwaaba!!!!!
