I don't struggle to manage big players - Kwesi Appiah

Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah has refuted suggestions that he does not have the clout to manage big egos in the Black Stars team.

The 56-year-old coach guided the West African powerhouse to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil before facing the sack the following year.

He returned to the team after two years and is gunning to lead them to end their 35-year trophy drought.

But the team's disappointing performance in the 1-0 defeat Kenya in the 2019 AFCON qualifier has put the former Al Khartoum trainer under spotlight, with some section of Ghanaians football fans claiming that he losing the dressing room.

However, according to Appiah, even though people perceive him to be strong-armed regarding management of the senior players, they’re not issues that pin him down because they don’t understand his tactics.

“You see these are some of the things that if you’ve played before, they wouldn’t be issues that will pin me down, if it’s difficult to handle the players then I don’t think I’m qualified to be a head coach," Appiah told Ghanaweb.

“The important thing is that sometimes the coach has to take a decision that is different from what they expect, and they think the coach is taking that decision because he wants to take some particular player out but I know what I am doing”, he explained.

Coach Kwesi Appiah, who played at the left-back position for the Black Stars and Kumasi Asante Kotoko, said no one is perfect and that is the more reason why the senior players need to be given chances to prove themselves or watch them mess up and realise their faults when the young players compete and take their positions.

“At the end of the day, once these big players notice there are something’s that are not right and starts making them backslide and there is a young competitor and they might take their positions from them, they then “kill” themselves and stop disobeying, irrespective of your status”, said Kwesi Appiah.

It shall be recalled that Kwasi Appiah led Ghana to the 2014 World Cup where the Black Stars were booted out of the tournament in the group stages for the first time in history.

Ghana’s abysmal performance at the tourney was partly blamed on Kevin Prince Boateng, Sulley Muntari, and Michael Essien as the masterminds of problems in Ghana's World Cup. Many opined that the coach could not manage the ego of certain players who went to the extent dictating to the coach to drop goalkeeper Adams Kwarasey.

Read Full Story