Milo dumps Ghana for Saudi: Dr. Kwame Osei

It has been reported that Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac has unceremoniously dumped the Black Stars for a club side in Saudi Arabia.

This comes as a bitter blow to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) who were looking forward to Rajevac signing an improved 4-year contract worth a reported US$66,000 a month.

Before the recent African Cup of Nations qualifier with Swaziland, it was hoped that Rajevac would put pen to paper and sign at the dotted line but it was reported that Rajevac had issues that he needed to clear up in his native Serbia before he signed the contract.

There were rumours that he was not happy with the improved remuneration from US$45,000 a month to US$66,000 a month.

However it has since been revealed that while he was pondering his future with the Black Stars and keeping the GFA dangling, Milovan Rajevac was negotiating for himself a lucrative deal with Saudi Arabian side Al-Alhy of Jeddah.

It appears that the Saudi Arabian outfit were prepared to pay Rajevac more than what the GFA were prepared to offer him.

Therefore it can be said that it was not footballing reasons that Milovan Rajevac decided to leave the Black Stars but for money.

This being the case it could be implied that Milovan Rajevac used the Black Stars for his own personal ambitions.

Even his own agent was surprised at the turn of events as his agent thought that Milo was committed to the Black Stars but it shows how dishonorable Mr. Rajevac has been and this should serve as a warning to those who believe that because of the colour of their skin, White people are more honorable than Afrikans.

Let's face it who knew of Milovan Rajevac before he took over the reigns as coach of the Black Stars? He wasn't one of the top notch European Coaches like Guus Hiddink or Fabio Capello but Ghana took a chance with him.

It is fair to say that it is the Black Stars who have helped Milovan Rajevac become a household name recognized across the world especially after Ghana's high profile World Cup campaign.

Although it can be said that he guided the Black Stars to the final of the African Cup of Nations in Angola in January and to the Quarter final of the World Cup in South Afrika, the reality of the situation is that most if not all of the credit for these achievements should go to the players.

It is said that a workman is only as good as his tools, meaning that Rajevac was only successful with the Ghana National Football Team because of the array of talented players at his disposal with the likes of world class players in the shape of Michael Essien and Asamoah Gyan and emerging talents like Dede Ayew, Kevin Prince Boateng, Agyeman Badu and Jonathan Mensah.

That said he instilled in the Black Stars a ruthless and steely discipline and determination that has served the Black Stars well in recent times.

However if there was a criticism of his class of management is that he made the Black Stars at times too defensive and adopted the famous one goal project/strategy.

To many Ghanaians a couple of major concerns when Rajevac was appointed was his inability to communicate with his players in the heat of battle due to his inability to speak in English.

However the biggest gripe that many Ghanaians had with Milovan Rajevac's tenure as Black Stars coach was the colossal salary in Ghanaian terms anyway, that he was being paid.

The sum of US$45,000 a month that Rajevac was reportedly on was too much for Ghanaians to handle as it was seen by many that it was too much for a country like Ghana to fork out but more importantly that if Rajevac had been Afrikan, the GFA would not have paid even a tenth of that sum given that the assistant coach, a Ghanaian, takes home reportedly in comparison a paltry US$3,000 a month.

Whatever the circumstances of Milovan Rajevac's departure, the GFA now have a golden opportunity to appoint either a local coach or a coach of Afrikan descent to manage the Black Stars and take them to the next level.

There are many suitable local coaches and coaches of Afrikan descent who can manage Ghana and the GFA must take the bull by the horn by doing the right thing by appointing either a Ghanaian or somebody of Afrikan descent.

Former World Footballer of the year and Liberian great George Weah during the World Cup in South Afrika lambasted most of the Afrikan teams that appeared in the World Cup for having White/foreign managers.

He also stated that having White managers sent a wrong message that Black or Afrikan people have not got what it takes to manage Afrikan teams at the highest level.

Therefore the onus is on the GFA to try and do the right thing by employing a Ghanaian or Afrikan coach to succeed Rajevac.

However there are some who say that employing a local coach will not have the discipline to deal with the multi-millionaires like Essien, Muntari and co.

Likewise there will be calls from some areas of Ghanaian society who will say that the local coaches have not got what it takes right now to manage the Black Stars and therefore the GFA must stick with the foreign coach.

This is a point of view that has some currency and for me a compromise situation would be to employ a White coach as Rajevac's successor BUT and this is key, employ a local coach to work alongside him and groom him with the view to replacing the coach after the next World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

During this period the local coach will do his coaching badges in accordance to FIFA regulations, would get training on a variety of issues such as sports nutrition, sports psychology and sports science to mention but three, help develop the youth policy, go around the local leagues looking for talent but most important would be to gain experience from the White coach in terms of formation, tactics and strategy and man management

Given the above conditions and paying the local or Afrikan coach a good salary, there is no reason why a local or Afrikan coach cannot manage the Black Stars to greater success – the task is for those in authority to recognize that the Black man IS capable of football management at the highest level – Sellas Tetteh the manager of the victorious World Cup winning under 20 national football team more than proved this.

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