Seventy-two hours before Aduana F.C. goalkeeper Prince Osei saved Samba O’neil’s spot kick, the chairman of Kotoko’s Interim Management Committee (IMC), Nana Akwasi Awuah Apinkrah, met with the players.
The tone of the meeting and his utterances added more explosives to an already combustible situation.
But this was not pyrotechnics at Christmas.
‘‘If this match (against Aduana F.C.) does not go well, if next week’s match (against Hearts of Oak) does not go well, there will be consequences. There will be consequences. A lot of things will happen to both playing body, technical, management…everybody,’’ he told the players, coaching staff, and management at the club’s Adako Jachie Training Complex.
For a club that was dealing with incessant pressure from the press and its fans, the last thing it needed was threats from its IMC boss.
Yet, without explicitly stating it, Nana Apinkrah had suggested that the coach could be sacked, while the contracts of the players would also be terminated.
It is perhaps why the usually reliable Samba O’neil, who had scored from the same distance only a week ago, missed from the spot.
In the end, Kotoko slumbered their way to a goalless draw before losing 4-2 to Aduana F.C. on penalty shootouts.
What now?
By convention, Mondays at Kotoko are for post-match technical reviews. On occasion, a management member or two may attend.
However, today’s review has attained a whole new level of importance given the events of the last 96 hours.
Zito’s state of mind
Sources close to the club and Zito say the coach is resigned to fate and has been preparing for his exit since the middle of January.
After Kotoko’s stalemate at Gold Stars, Zito lashed out at a few supporters who got too close. In not as many words, Zito said if the fans were not happy with him, he would leave the club.
The following week, Zito was involved in a training grounds bust-up with Inusah Adam over his lack of application. Zito reportedly called him out, and the player responded with a few choice words before he was asked to sit out the rest of the training session.
It is not exactly evidence of a broken dressing room. In fact, after the session, captain Samba O’Neil diffused the situation, insisting that the winger apologise to the coach.
Isolated, it is probably not much. Disagreements between players and or their coaches happen all the time. But there is more.
By the end of January, Zito had decided to pack his belongings from his apartmentat Adako Jachie. His son came all the way from Accra to pack and transport them back to the Greater Accra Regional capital.
After Sunday’s defeat, Zito was asked if he had a message to the fans.
His response was nonchalant.
“We are building. If the fans are patient, fine. If they are not patient, whatever they do, we will take it like that.”
Make of that what you will.
Zito has not exactly covered himself in glory.
Currently, his report card reads – * 31 games
* 14 wins
* 10 draws
* 7 losses
* 43 goals scored
That is less than a 50% win rate, and at any top club, it would be unacceptable.
He won the F.A. Cup last July, but Kotoko have now been eliminated from the competition and are eight points behind league leaders, Medeama S.C.
Sunday’s defeat means Kotoko have now won just once in their last six matches in all competitions.
While the results have been less than satisfactory, Kotoko should not be pressing the restart button with 13 league matches still to play.
But in keeping with their trigger-happy nature, Kotoko are reportedly setting the wheels in motion for a fresh start.
A disillusioned squad?
If anything typifies Kotoko’s dysfunctional IMC, it is Samba O’neil’s contract situation. The captain’s contract runs out at season’s end, with no agreement in sight.
The Congolese wants to be made the highest-paid player at the club, and why not? Thanks to the club’s poor wage structure, Donzo Morifing, who has scored just 4 times in 22 matches, earns more than O’neil and is the highest-paid player at the club. He reportedly earns $4,000 per month.
Add that to the growing list of suitors, and you can understand why the central defender might be tempted to wait, leave on a free transfer for a handsome signing-on bonus and a significantly improved wage.
All of that is why the Congolese defender took exception to being singled out for blame at half-time by a management member who confronted the players in Sunday’s defeat.
Incompetent IMC?
Generally, however, Kotoko’s problem is a distinct lack of quality and mismanagement.
Mismanagement, because if competent minds had assembled the squad, it would have been significantly better. I mean, who on that management team thought it was a good idea to sell Albert Amoah, the club’s top scorer, in the middle of the season?
In the end, Amoah’s Libyan adventure was an unmitigated disaster, and Kotoko has taken the player back on loan after just three months. Whatever economic gains they envisaged will not materialize because they are most likely going to take him back on a long-term deal, and that affects how much Kotoko will make from the original transfer fee.
Lack of quality because how is Kotoko relying on a striker who has 4 goals in 22 appearances all season? Or Kwame Opoku, who has returned 3 goals in 12 appearances this season?
It is hard to tell what the current IMC is good at.
In their first season, they sanctioned a massive squad overhaul, sacking over 17 players and replacing them with 22.
The following season, another sizeable batch was sacked as a new set of players were signed without any proper squad audit.
Two months into the campaign, they botched Kotoko’s title chances when they sent the team to the United States while their opponents gathered momentum.
Last season, the Nana Apinkrah-led management sacked Prosper Ogum ostensibly to chart a bold, new, sustainable future. Less than a year after that, the club is on the verge of sacking Karim Zito after an inconsistent run.
If Zito was the wrong coach to replace Ogum, then those who hired him made a mistake, and they need to answer for that.
If this is a knee-jerk and ultimately wrong approach to a brief wobble, then IMC is going about it the wrong way. Either way, the IMC cannot be trusted to manage Kotoko after dropping the ball at each turn.
In the three years of the IMC’s leadership, Kotoko have ended a season without a trophy, won the F.A. Cup last season, and are likely to end this campaign without a trophy.
Why should they be trusted to manage Kotoko for even a day more?
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com
