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Del Writes: Sacking assistant coaches while Otto Addo remains in charge is meaningless

Reports ringing in town of a possible dismissal of John Paintsil and Joseph Laumann as Black Stars assistant coaches while Otto Addo is set to keep his role as head coach is simply ridiculous. Pulse Ghana's Mandela Anuvabe argues the duo are being used as sacrificial lambs to mask the GFA's wrong re-appointment of Otto Addo, his tactical shortfalls and why everything is wrong with such a move...
Del Writes: Sacking assistant coaches while Otto Addo remains in charge is meaningless
Del Writes: Sacking assistant coaches while Otto Addo remains in charge is meaningless

What is the Ghana Football Association (GFA) up to? No way!

Public relations (PR) gimmicks and face-saving exercises while swerving accountability will not be allowed to fly this year. Especially not when we just witnessed a record low in the senior men’s national team’s performance in two decades.  

It’s one thing not complying with your criteria in employing a coach who fell short of the minimum recruitment requirements, and another in deciding to keep him after consecutive shambolic displays.   

However, it’s simply ludicrous and plain mockery to hear reports that Ghana’s football governing body intends to sack Otto Addo’s two assistants while he remains in post.  

Don’t get me wrong, we all agree John Paintsil and Joseph Laumann have not done enough to merit their stay on the Black Stars’ technical staff. But neither has Addo.   

If anything at all everyone on that backroom staff must be dismissed immediately. Or should I say, must have been handed sacking letters two months ago.  

But what do we hear after so-called Executive Committee meetings? Mere grapevine reports of a technical shake-up, which basically points to Paintsil and Laumann being sacrificial lambs for Addo’s lack of tactical depth and man-management skills.  

These two are being thrown to the dogs as a face-saving exercise so the GFA can say: “Oh, we are a listening organisation.” No, you are not.  

Fair if you disagree on the lack of tactical depth part, albeit, we all don’t know his team’s playing style as of now. But, his man-management skills are non-existent. How many captains have we had under him? How many of them has he fallen off with?   

Don’t get me started on what he probably thought was a bold move in making Mohammed Kudus captain before that crucial encounter against Kwesi Appiah’s Sudan.  

A listening association wouldn’t have re-appointed the talent development coach from Borussia Dortmund to handle what could have been a golden generation for the five-time African champions.  

Black Stars supporters

This crop of players should be favourites going into any continental tournament, but what have we seen in the last couple of years? Back-to-back group stage exits capped by failure to qualify for the 2025 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco.  

And you think the right move is relieving the two seconds-in-command of their roles? Not the “master tactician”? Or replacing them with a Serbian or a Belgian will do the trick?  

What an unfunny joke.  

Shameful attempt to paper the cracks

Bar a few social media posts and interviews intended to shift blame disguised as apologies, no one from the GFA has owned up to this gross humiliation.  

Do you know how disgraceful it is that about 70 percent of people in a country that prides itself as a football nation have not witnessed their senior national team lift a trophy in 43 years?  

Sorry, no, not sorry to say with the current trajectory of the Black Stars, winning an AFCON might not happen in the lifetime of anyone reading this now. Things must change before my ink is dry. Otherwise, same old story.   

PR gimmicks, face-saving exercises, and sacking of more Paintsils or Laumanns while the real solution lies with the GFA being honest, appointing competent coaches and not yes men, or eschewing itself from lobbying for players, will not take us anywhere.  

I’m sure many Ghanaians agree with the reported dismissal of the two assistants, however, that is far from the solution before the Black Stars face Chad and Morocco in March.  

Maybe the GFA is unaware of the consequences if Ghana fail to make it to the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.   

I can’t be the one to tell them that though, they should know better. 

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