Avram Grant: The “Near Man’s” highs and lows during a turbulent two year spell in charge of the Black Stars

The Israeli coach was hired by the Ghana Football Association on November 2014 and started working on the 1st Of December as he leaves after 25 months.

We take a look at his achievements and failures.
His first achievement was saving a sinking ship.The Black stars after the Brazil 2014 fiasco was about sinking. The public had lost faith in the team. All hopes were lost going to AFCON 2015.

Avram Grant did start on a bad note, losing to Senegal in the first group game but the team managed to turn things around and won 4 games on a row to get to the grand final where the Black stars lost to Côte D'Ivoire on penalties.

Claude Le Roy brought the likes of Andre Ayew,Afful Harrison, Kwadwo Asamoah, Anthony Annan to the Blackstars.

Rajevac brought Jonathan Mensah, Samuel Inkoom, Prince Boateng etc. Kwesi Appiah came with Atsu Twasam, Wakaso Mubarak, Schlupp, Rahman Baba, Majeed Warris, Jordan Ayew.

Avram Grant had a template Squad with no significant new infusion to the core of the team but he can be credited with Daniel Amartey and Thomas Partey who became regulars at the AFCON 2017.

The former Chelsea coach himself would struggle to name his achievements during his stint as the head coach of Ghana Black stars beyond the above stated two. Talk about his failures and the topic will never end. The coach after a very promising AFCON experience in January-February started destroying every good image of his in the eyes of football fans in the West African nation.

Grant barely stayed in Ghana. He treated the job as a part-time job with punditry at Sky Sports UK his main job under the guise of monitoring players abroad. At the point in time, the Ghana FA had to write to him pleading for him to return to Accra. Under his tenure, the Black stars squad barely saw new faces. Call ups was almost the same throughout his stint as the Blackstars gaffer.

During his introduction to the public on his appointment, the coach was supposed to organise regular coaching clinic for the local coaches but he failed to do more than one. A coach of his caliber with EPL experience, he was supposed to impact positively on the domestic game but he added nothing to it.

It was evidently he despised the domestic game and wanted nothing to do with it. He was seen at few league centers but it was all for the cameras to shame his critics. Avram's public relation leaves a lot to be desired. The least opportunity he gets, he throws jabs at the media and the nation at large.

After Ghana's win over Mozambique in an AFCON qualifier he said to the media present that the Nation should concentrate on football and stop the bulls**t.

When the 'Near Man' officially took over the Black stars in December 1, 2014, the team was ranked 37 by FIFA. Fast forward February 2017, he leaves with the team lying 54 on the FIFA Rankings.