Open letter to Togbe Afede XIV, Accra Hearts Oak
It’s very obvious that the Phobian marching band is better than the playing team, our great club has hit the ground and the reasons are pretty much conspicuous.
I have always motivated myself with a beautiful but ridiculous quote which never seems to happen – “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but rising every time we fall”, it looks as if we are stuck on the ground and there’s no hope of rising.
Our decline has spanned an epoch, it’s been a long while since Accra became the home of Champions.
Hearts of oak won their last title in 2008/2009, and since then there has been a drastic change in Ghana football.
The model that proved so efficacious for the club, careful economic planning and letting their football do the talking, has been replaced by ineffectual or futile autocratic administrative style.
As legendary American, Black Elk rightly said in the 1800’s that “The soldiers did go away and their towns were torn down; and in the Moon of Falling Leaves (November), they made a treaty with Red Cloud that said our country would be ours as long as grass should grow and water flow”.
Hearts of Oak’s 64 battalions did go away and now it looks as if the club literally lacks water to grow the mighty Oak tree again.
The demise of Accra Hearts of Oak is unpardonable, especially in the era of millionaire Togbe Afede, because the world of football has provided many practical instances or evidence when rich individuals take over clubs as owners.
The success story of Manchester City in the last decade was obviously made possible by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and the consortium Asian football investors who won the English Premier league for Leicester City against all odds, Chairman Moïse Katumbi made T.P Mazembe conquered Africa again in such an enviable and beautiful manner, the list of these success stories are unending.
A mere disillusion in the case of Accra Hearts of oak; The coming of Togbe Afede has got nothing good to talk about, thus far, perhaps relegation survival.
The incontrovertible fact is that the club has spent much money on player recruitment than any other in the country but to no avail.
Furthermore, Hearts of Oak have suffered serious technical instability than any other local club in the last decade with about nine coaches after the exit of Kosta Papic, and most of these coaches are sacked in the middle of the season.
Many legends of the club have described your managerial style as visionless and self-centered. According to former player and head coach Mohammed Polo – “The team Hearts of Oak now has no vision. Their struggle in the league is not hard luck or anything spiritual. They are being ungrateful and making silly decisions”
The millions of supporters have called on you to make room for their administrative heroes like Nii Ayi Bonte II, Ernest Thompson, TT Brothers, Alhaji Hearts and others to salvage the club but it is yet to happen.
Your Royal Highness, competent management team, beautiful supporters of the mighty club, I need not to outline the recurring problems of the team you love, but things are falling apart and obviously the Gods are not to blame. What could we be proud of?. When a 1911 club can’t find a place of their own to train and our first game at El Wak could not provide us any sense of hope.
As Sarah Dessen said “There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you’ve carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand.” I am sorry to give to you my vote of no confidence.
Yours Truly.
By Edward Gyasi
Source: GNA