Wellington 'jumps' to avoid push?

Accra, July 10, GNA - Orlando Wellington has resigned as Coach of the Black Satellites team with barely three weeks to the team's African Youth Championship (AYC) qualifier billed against Uganda later this month.

Under-fire Wellington who supervised a chain of poor results in recent times walked, off on Tuesday morning, according to George Afriyie, Chairman of the Black Satellites Management Committee.

Afriyie told GNA Sports 'I have been told about his resignation letter and I should have a hold of it any moment.'

He hinted that a Management Committee meeting originally scheduled for Thursday, July 12 will be pushed a day forward to allow a decision to be taken in time to salvage the effect of Wellington's decision on the team's preparation.

The Chairman described Wellington's move as unfortunate and blamed it on what he described as harsh criticism of the Coach who has been the object of discussions after the Satellites relinquished a 2-0 first half lead to draw with Namibia in a three-nation tourney in Accra last Sunday.

'I saw this coming because the pressure is too much. The last few days have been difficult on all of us because of the manner of pressure from everywhere. I think he took the best decision under the circumstance. The criticism is harsh, most unfair and it got to him'

Afriyie was, however, quick to say the timing of the former Heart of Lions trainer's decision was problematic.

'The timing of the resignation is very bad for us since we have almost three weeks to our game with Uganda. But we cannot use that as an excuse. Luckily, we have the core of the team in place and we will need to work hard not to have it affect our plans'

Afriyie however poured scorn on suggestions that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) had plans to show Wellington the door after Sunday's results which the former considered the last straw.

'I do not know where that information is coming from and I can tell you it never featured in our discussion. That was not what we planned discussing at our meeting on Thursday. Wellington has enjoyed our support this far and we were not about to withdraw that.'

Afriyie said management will take a decision on Wellington's move and report to the GFA for the necessary action in the ensuing days

The Coach was part of the technical staff that aided the Satellites to claim the World Youth Championship title in Egypt in 2009 but failed to qualify the team for the competition as substantive trainer two years on haven exited the AYC as defending Champions at the group stage.

The Coach, like all the other local coaches for all the national teams apart from the Black Stars worked without a contract.

GNA