The Venezuelan’s Fault?

While controversy continues to swirl regarding the fate of head technician and renowned sage Ratomir Dujkovic, a new culprit has been found to bear responsibility for the poor performance of the Stars in Egypt.

Local wags are now starting to blame new assistant Jose Ali, a Venezuelan, whose lack of technical strategy is blamed for many of the defensive lapses suffered by the Ghana side.

Ali, it is claimed, relaxed the discipline for which previous coaches such as Silas Tetteh were noted, and this may have led to a reduction in productivity. Counter-rumors swirl that this carping is a sign of sour grapes from the local coaching community, which had felt sold short by the Grandmaster. This latter point should have been somewhat mitigated by the recent decision to use two additional local coaches as scouts.

This commentator has not yet, not for lack of trying, been able to reach a conclusion on the culpability of Ali for the Black Stars’ slide. One thing can be sure though, when it comes to Ghana football, no matter is too petty to be thoroughly dissected by local press and pundits. Perhaps we should leave Jose Ali alone to let him do his job versus Mexico, and work from there.