Incumbent assistant coach of the Black Stars, Maxwell Konadu has made his intentions clear of wanting the newly vacant Black Stars job but does not have the full confidence of certain former players of the Black Stars team, SportsWorldGhana.com investigations have revealed.
Konadu has been assistant coach for the Stars for the past five years serving as number two under both Kwesi Appiah and the out-going Avram Grant. Grant called it quits after the Stars’ fiasco in Gabon and since then, the hunt for the new Ghana coach has begun.
A section of the media believe it’s about time the reins was handed down to a local coach again and Konadu is fancying his chances of landing the job having been with the team these last few years.
However, reports have it that certain ex Ghanaian internationals are holding a vote-of-no-confidence stance in Konadu sighting certain concerns that, in his capacity as assistant coach, he did not do much to help elevate the local league and to advocate for local players’ inclusion in the team. Grant, throughout his stay as coach of the senior national team came for a lot of slack for a supposed negligence and nonchalance towards the local league as he received a lot of backlash for his purported disinterest and shunning of local players.
And when the Stars squad for the AFCON in Gabon was released with only goalkeeper Richard Ofori the only local player, the critics seemingly had a stick with which to beat Grant with.
Add that Ghana’s best player on the local scene last season Latif Blessing was overlooked, only further added fan to the flames and these aforementioned senior figures in the squad feel like Konadu could have done a lot to help provide the platform for the local league to flourish by giving call-ups to players who merited them.
As it turned out, the Stars failed in their quest to win the AFCON and an inquiry has already began into the latest fiasco. In doing so, a new coach is expected to be named imminently with qualification for AFCON 2019 set to commence in June and in view of these revelations, it will be interesting to see how the next few weeks pan out. Will the handlers of the Stars heed the voice of what these senior players in the team are saying or they would want to give Konadu a shot at the job?
In spite of these revelations, does Konadu even have the confidence of the officials of the Stars? Is Konadu primed yet to be Black Stars coach now? There seem to be more questions than answers now but one thing is for sure: a new coach is expected to be named sooner rather than later.
