Coaching casualties, social media threats

As predictable as sunshine follows rainfall, some coaches have become victims of their teams’ disappointing performance in the ongoing Ghana Premier League, with veterans Herbert Addo and J.E. Sarpong becoming early casualties this week long before the competition reaches the halfway mark.

With just 11 matches into the season, the usual managerial merry-go-round was in full swing this week when Ebusua Dwarfs and Inter Allies, the league’s two bottom clubs, dispensed with their coaches after poor runs, with relegation staring them in the face. 

Already, the biggest casualty of the season was Kumasi Asante Kotoko’s head coach David Duncan, who was ordered to “step aside”, while his assistant, Michael Osei, took over after a poor run of results. 

The kitchen seems to be getting too hot for Bashir Hayford too after he made a request to the management of AshantiGold to give him a three-month break, having come under intense pressure by the club’s supporters to resign because of the poor performance of the defending champions who are 13th on the log.

Also this week, Medeama SC’s enigmatic coach Tom Strand abandoned the club after their 3-1 loss to Mamelodi Sundowns in their CAF Confederation Cup play off in South Africa last weekend, with the Swede reportedly leaving a resignation letter in his hotel room, what we consider a rather bizarre way of parting ways with one’s employer.

Strand’s desertion comes as little surprise, as his loyalty to the club had been questioned on a number of occasions following reports that he had had a secret meeting with officials of Kumasi Asante Kotoko.

A few weeks ago, Hearts of Oak were reportedly close to dismissing their Japanese coach Kenichi Yatsuhashi for comments he made on social media, as well as what club officials termed disrespect to the Hearts management and board. 

Perhaps, the club’s impressive performance in the competition so far made it rather difficult for the Hearts management to let the axe fall on the Japanese, who has been credited with the sudden turnaround in fortune for the league leaders.

In fact, Hearts’ discomfiture with Kenichi over his recent comments on Facebook, which revealed some inner workings of the club and the conditions of service of some members of staff, only goes to highlight potential slippery areas in contemporary times which are hardly addressed effectively by contracts between our clubs and their players, as well as technical staff.

Given the ever increasing need for information by the media, when players and coaches keep in touch with their fans through social media platforms, there is always the potential for dangerous slips, especially where no clear boundaries have been set by clubs regarding what  information could be given out. 

The Graphic Sports believes that in order not to be seen to be suppressing free speech within a democratic dispensation, while at the same time trying to avoid potentially embarrassing expose by players and other staff (the type which befell Kenichi), it is about time our clubs began to set the boundaries and also engaged their staff on the “dos and don’ts" on social media and other forms of media engagement.