Black Stars coach imitates President Mahama, evidence-based monitoring

kwame

April 12, 2016 9:35 AM

Black Stars coach Avram Grant took a page from President John Dramani Mahama's with his evidence-based player monitoring. The big question is, how long can he keep it up?

The last State of the Nation address by

Going by cues taken from how the president executed his evidence-based presentation to show he was working for the good of Ghanaians, the term evidence-based could be defined as showing practical subjects as proof of a job done.

Black Stars coach Avram Grant might not have publicly declared he was taking some pages out of President John Mahama’s book, but his dealings over the weekend was a true representation of evidence-based.

The former Chelsea boss left Ghana last Wednesday after taking charge of the Black Stars games against Mozambique in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Grant was given permission by the Ghana Football Association to monitor players in Europe as his assistant Maxwell Konadu takes charge of scouting mission in the local leagues.

The excuse of monitoring players in Europe has been heard before with Avram Grant later seen on the Sky Sports hot seat discussing the next big step for the English Premier League. So that excuse was always going to create doubts in the minds of football loving Ghanaians.

Avram Grants knows this. And his silent tussle with the Ghana media previously on the issue made him more careful.

The Israeli put a bold face after criticism of him overstaying his leave days and getting dragged to the country by a letter from the Ghana Football Association. He took his slightest opportunity after Ghana beat Mozambique at the Accra Sports Stadium to dish out some ‘bulls**t’ comments to the nation.

Grant’s defence mechanism coupled with his agent’s snook to the people of Ghana did not stop Ghanaians from voicing their frustration to the intolerable act.

So his next visit to Europe was a systematic calculation.

First the Ghana Football Association announced Grant’s travel as opposed to previously just seeing him pop up on one of the SkySports channels.

Then in his second step, Avram Grant took a page from President John Dramani Mahama’s communication book.

A picture of the Black Stars coach and Rabiu Mohammed appeared on social media after the first weekend action of football after Grant’s travel to Europe.

In other words, Grant is giving Ghanaians an evidence-based proof that he indeed does monitor players across Europe and is not just touring across the globe with the $50 000 tax payers put in his pocket every month.

The question here is, how long is it going to continue? Are we going to see a picture of Grant and a Black Stars player or a prospective national team player pop up every week?

We could see, or maybe not.

But the point still remains the same. Avram Grant has to love and cherish the kind of football we play locally and if the need be help improve it as the senior technical football man on the land.

Player development is his duty but most of it should be done locally.

Granted, a few trips to Europe is not something Ghana can’t cope with but the Israeli should know his ‘evidence-based’ monitoring has been noted.

And Ghanaians wait to see how many of those evidences we are going to get over the next few weeks or months before he finally returns. Avram Grant has set a standard, and as such he is expected to go by his own standards.

The clock is ticking.

Follow @kboakye92

kwame