The Black Stars

 Coaches have gone and come yet the Stars remain the Stars we have known under the previous managers.

The same applies to the playing staff which has seen generations come and gone, but not been able to add to the four AFCONs won by the 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982 year groups.

What is yet to be tried is the advice to restart the whole process with a plan that will be centred on developing local players and making them the core of the team.

This appears a gamble the ‘football people’ are not ready to take for the fear of failing to earn qualifications or being vilified and lampooned by the fans.

But to serve the FA a reminder, this is a perfect time to embrace this idea.

It is because Ghana has gotten to a stage where fans are fed up with the players for their regular disappointment.

In fairness, this should be the beginning of a completely new rebuild with focus on the local players who already possesses the demands of Kurt Okraku. The only reason it has not been considered is the lack of faith in them.

What is needed for them will be patience from fans. This may have been tried in the past without the success rate expected because it would take a lot of time for the team to gel.

Former Black Stars defender, Shilla Illiasu, made a similar call after the match, calling for a development plan to follow to build a new team.

In Illiasu’s view, it would be in the best interest of the FA to abandon the quest to qualify for competitions in the next five years; a period within which recommendations in the plan would be implemented.

“Going forward, I think the time has come for every Ghanaian to let us understand that there is a problem with the team and in order to build a solid team, we need to forget about AFCON and World Cup and to put together a plan; maybe a five year development plan and let the whole country understand that there is a problem with the team.”

Illiasu has hit the nail right on it head. It is surely the way to go to stop going around in circles with players who have regularly shown that they lack the quality needed to get Ghana the results.

It may sound a tough call but without the luxury of foreign based players for Sudan, Kwesi Appiah has shown the way in a similar fashion; building a team consisting of home based players.

If Appiah was asked to implement this in Ghana about five years ago, he would have been among those to brush aside the idea.

But in a country with few options, he has built a team which is a point away from qualifying to an AFCON at the expense of Ghana.

Of course, that does not automatically transform Appiah into the best coach on the continent; at least he has proven that one can build a winsome team with players plying their trade on home soil.

If at a point foreign based players showed promise and wants to join, such a player must be made to fight for a role.

For now all seem lost for Ghana. For Sudan, Kwesi Appiah and his Ghanaian assistant, Ignatius Kwame Osei-Fosu, and their charges have every reason to savour the moment. They should not weep for Ghana because his blueprint full of belief in the abilities of local based players can be implemented.

Appiah’s has worn a sombre mood obviously due to his affiliation to Ghana but as a professional with a greater understanding of the game, he has every reason to celebrate with Sudanese.

The rest would be left to the ‘football people’ to take a major decision to halt the downward spiral of our game.

 By Andrew Nortey