Black Stars Head Coach, James Kwesi Appiah says he does not owe anyone explanation as to choice of players called up for national team assignments.
The Ghanaian gaffer who made a return to technical bench of the four times African Cup of Nations Champions in April last year have been censured by a section of Ghanaian populace over his national team call ups.
He received a lot of backlash from the public in his last call ups to the Black Stars for the 2019 African Cup of Nations qualifiers against Kenya, when he left out the Ayew brothers and Alfred Duncan, a game Ghana lost 1-0 despite dominating proceedings.
Some people questioned Appiah’s decision to overlook key players, but he insists call ups to the Black Stars is his responsibility.
“I hear some of my colleagues all the time saying I need to explain my call ups. Ghana has got thousands of players,” Appiah is quoted by Citinewsroom.
“There are so many players on my data, so much so that I can sit here and call about five different teams. And that is excluding the local based players.
“There are so many players, so if I’m going to explain why a player is not playing every time we have a match, how can I explain that?
Appiah did not mince words to remind fans of the team that only technical people will merit explanation for his choice of players and not a “layman”.
“I believe that if I should even explain, then it should be to fellow technical people who will understand.”
Media reports have alleged that Mr. Appiah lack the temerity to manage his players and that, he has opted the easier ignoring players with egos, but he believes such claims are born out of ignorance.
“These are some of the things that I think if you’ve played before these things are not issues (for a Coach). If you find it difficult to handle a player then you are not worth being a coach in the first place,” the former Asante Kotoko left back noted.
“If you manage a player, sometimes the coach has to take decisions and people think the coach wants to take that decision because he wants to take the player out but sometimes being the coach you know what you are doing.
“Sometimes you can let a player sit out, not that he is arrogant but maybe you want to achieve something out of him or make sure next time when he is coming in, he is coming to fight for his jersey and his position. Anytime he comes back he will kill himself for his position. “Appiah added.
Kwesi Appiah’s next assignment will be in October as the Black Stars face Sierra Leone in the Afcon 2019 qualifiers
