TALENTS BUT NO IDENTITY!

TALENTS BUT NO IDENTITY!

Footballing Philosophy; The Importance.

Ghana have been stuck in a dark era now for over 30 years, where the one shining light has been Cairo in 2009, the only night the fans can truly say Ghana football has been where it is supposed to be. It is therefore safe to say nobody at the Football Association will be satisfied until winning the African Cup is a reality and realistic objective on a regular basis.

Finishing in 4th place in 2013 AFCON will not have done Kwesi Appiah many favours in convincing the critics who have had their reservations about him, however, he is adamant progress is being made and those who are prepared to look a bit deeper into what is actually going on will probably be inclined to agree. The first thing Ghanaian fans need to come together and understand is the level of decline that Ghana football has actually been in. The Football Association has been in terrible hands with money being spent in the most irresponsible ways possible, with no real investment and attention to talent recruitment and development, and most importantly, fitting a particular philosophy. In short, there has been no identity to Ghana football.


For the purpose of this article, a footballing philosophy, which could also mean a footballing identity is defined as a set of beliefs about how football should be played on the field tactically.
From the Merriam Webster Dictionary, 'philosophy' is defined as:

"the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group."

Having a clear, identifiable and strong philosophy in approach to football; i would argue that every successful and sustainable team in today's world of football has to have one.

In 1974, the Dutch didn't actually win the World Cup but they created "total football" pioneered by Rinus Michels. With sheer beauty and movement, that was not seen before, the Dutch team showed how football could and should be played. This would be a defining moment in the history of Spanish football and where the foundations of "total football" and youth development were put in place for the present day after FC Barcelona recruited Rinus Michels. The end result? Two European Championships in 2008 and 2012, and the World Cup in 2010.
More so, German football has arguably never been in such a strong and healthy state. As both the German national team and Bundesliga clubs have a unique way in approach to football, their employment of 'gegenpressing' or counter-pressing. A highly organised approach to regaining possession and minimizing space for the opposition.
Since 2000, Bundesliga clubs and the German national team have benefited from the radical improvement of their footballing infrastructure, a masterstroke by the German Football Association (DFB). The Bundesliga clubs and the German Football Association work in harmony to their mutual benefits, besides the investment in youth development and coach training, the Bundesliga clubs, as part of their tactical repetoire, employ 'gegenpressing' or counter-pressing. This has been the identity of German football, and the success story was evident in the 2012-2013 UEFA Champions League.

At least the Ghanaian fan out there will be happy to see Ghanaian clubs dominating, and not just participating in the CAF Champions League, right?
Ghana football, however is in many ways akin to English football. We have the talents here in this country but do no have a philosophy. The football is open and 'loose', which is a great thing and a bad thing at the same time. It gives the freedom to players but also can lead to chaos.

To bring back the past glories, things have to be changed from the ground up, from not only the administrators, youth recruitment and development policy, but also the philosophy, atmosphere and an identifiable collective goal within Ghana football.

BERNARD DONG BORTEY: THE CON MAN?

BERNARD DONG BORTEY: THE CON MAN?

"Bernard Dong Bortey, the El Hadji Diouf of Ghana football." That was the answer that caught my attention when i asked my friends their conception about this talented Ghanaian footballer.

At that moment, i began to believe the saying that, if reputation precedes you, and in particularly one of a bad kind, then you may start to experience a struggle for social equality and the "they hate me" complex may begin to breed in the mind of the individual.

We often see many footballers trying to create a name for themselves in top leagues and these technically gifted professionals can often get rattled by the beastly force and physical nature of some football leagues, with fans often feeling betrayed and cheated by instances of bad-mouth, on and off the field controversies, issues of simulation, bad antics, feigning of injuries and many more.
And when these fans and the media contrive a reputation about a footballer, particularly, one of a bad kind, football pundits speak more about that footballer's defects, bitterness, distrust and also doubt abounds to the extent that even match officials who are to remain impartial in their dealings become blurred by that footballer's reputation.

Now, El Hadji Diouf is a Senegalese footballer who currently plays for Leeds United, and to be characterized with such an unpopular public figure who spat at a Celtic fan and banned from international football for four matches in 2004 for a verbal assault on referee Ali Bujsaim clearly tells me that Bernard Dong Bortey is a player penalised by reputation.

Bortey, despite being a clever, technically gifted player who had once become the lifeline of Accra Hearts Of Oak, with team mate, Charles Taylor, is irked by many opposing fans, greatly ridiculed by the media, loathed for his unwelcome gesticulations that gives football enthusiasts hours of material to chew over and debate upon, and greatly remembered for creating a fable that he absconded an amount of seventy million cedis back in those days from the chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko. This is the kind of identity Bernard Dong Bortey has achieved in Ghana football, and unfortunately, the belief about him has superseded his achievement as a player:

* Three Ghanaian Premier League titles

* 2002 Ghana Top 4 winner and top goalscorer

* 2004 CAF Confederation Cup winner

* 38 goals in 77 games at all levels

* 11 goals in 27 caps for Black Stars (Ghana)

Now plying his trade in Vietnam with Sông Lam Nghê An on loan from Aduana Stars, Bernard Dong Bortey has escaped the fishbowl, that is Ghana, given that his reputation has long been broken down following several contentious instances. 

The most natural example of a player who believes it is him against the world most of the time, Bortey, who is no stranger to the disciplinary table has been handed a 12-month ban for allegedly assaulting the centre referee during the FA Cup match against King Solomon FC. 
However, a livid Dong Bortey still feels the punishment is too much considering the real happenings of the game in question.

"The referee took an unjustified foul against me and i just protested so one-year ban is too much" , he said.

"If you ban me 7 to 10 matches i think it's fine but a whole year? What becomes of my football career?"
Reputation certainly went before Bortey that day.

And for him to win the love of football fans in Ghana, he has to identify the battlefield and the foe; his mind. Because the tag of being a "dirty" player, a thief, a swindler and the "me against the world" complex is clearly imprinted on the inside of his brain.

Perhaps unfairly, you decide because most fans are never going to change their conception about Bernard Dong Bortey.

EUROPE'S BEACON OF LIGHT

EUROPE’S BEACON OF LIGHT-

With cheap ticket prices and sound financial management of clubs and the league in general, is the Bundesliga the direct opposite of the other four major leagues in Europe?

In Germany, the fan is king. The Bundesliga has the lowest ticket prices and the highest average of Europe’s five major leagues. At Borussia Dortmund, the giant stand holds 26000 and costs a little more than 10 pounds for admission.

The clubs in Germany limit the number of season tickets to ensure that everyone has a chance to see the games, and the away team has the right to 10% of the available capacity. Match tickets double as there is free rail pass, not forgetting the free beers to wash down the free sausages, and English fans especially, can only dream of this philosophy.

The Bundesliga may be Europe’s only fit and proper football league yet no German team has won the Uefa Champions League in eleven years. This success rate, though could have changed if Bayern Munich had won the Uefa Champions League against Chelsea in the final.

The Bundesliga as a brand, a competition in good shape, is evident to the fact that, match day revenue is 424 million euros, sponsorship receipts is 573m euros and broadcast income, 594 million euros has been the main contributor to the Bundesliga’s 1.7 billion euros turnover.

In England, there is Portsmouth dice with extinction, Manchester City incurring the highest loss in the league last season (2011/2012) by a record of 197m pounds, followed by Chelsea. More so, Manchester United continue to build their mammoth debt mountains, so it wasn’t surprising when the club was recently put on the New York Stock Exchange, even at a discounted price.

In Spain, debts are just as high, causing La Liga players to go on strike because of unpaid wages and problems with TV rights sharing among the clubs. The stadia in Italy are always half-filled, and in France their clubs spend more of their income on players’ wages than those of any country. I mean 71% of their income.

However, these cheap ticket prices and sound financial management of clubs has made the prospect of any and all clubs mounting realistic tilt of title win in the Bundesliga. Meaning, you never know who is going to be crowned as champions. As with three different clubs have been cup winners and champions.

Is the Bundesliga Europe’s beacon of light?

Review Of Animal Farm To Ghana Politics

THE REVIEW OF GEORGE ORWELL'S ANIMAL TO GHANA POLITICS

The Animal Farm is an allegorical fable, and in literature, an allegory is a symbolic story in which characters, objects and descriptions serve as a disguised representation for meanings. The fable is a tale, usually satirical in nature or satirizing humanbeings. Although most often populated with animals, the fable can use men and inanimate objects as characters.

In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the animals on Mr. Jones's farm are fed up with a life of servitude, so therefore they incite someone to rebel and expel their master. Overtime, however, the ideals of the revolution disappear and are eventually thrown away altogether because of the clever devious management of the pigs, who assume their place alongside Man as two-legged ruler who exercise power in a harsh or cruel manner.

The book touches meaningfully the structure of all social and political revolutions, where the fundamental changes in ideals of justice and equality by a group of people associated in a common interest is damaged.

However, we can call to attention to indirectly hint at our present government, the Mill's administration, as it is in many ways akin to the major roles played by the major characters in George Orwell's Animal Farm. The book brings to light the issues of corruption and selfishness of this government due to their actions and inactions thereby bringing about the horror of unbearable hardships to the masses.
President Mills embodies the human condition of being weak and delicate of any mutiny, and George Orwell believed that although socialism is good as an ideal, it can never be successfully adopted due to the uncontrollable sins of human nature. President Mills, at the moment is overcome by greed and power-hungry subordinates, as now he sets principles that apply differently to a group than to another.
In that, the chief villain and the central character in the Animal Farm, Napoleon is an obvious metaphor for President John Evans Atta Mills.

Squealer, in the Animal Farm is an intriguing character who represents the present day propaganda. He is described as a manipulator, and George Orwell narrates, "He could turn black into white." Squealer was akin to the Pravda, the Russian newspaper in the 1930's. In Animal Farm, Squealer, like the newspaper, is the link between Napoleon and the other animals. When Squealer covers the evil intentions of the pigs, the intentions can be carried out with little resistance and without political disarray.

The Squealer is however, characterized by Richard Quashigah, propaganda secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The idea to promote or injure a cause is the duty of this man. But one may ask whether this cause is always meant in a positive way. The propagandist in question, Richard Quashigah is trying his best to justify the deliberately masterminded payment of GHC 58 million to Alfred Woyome. Instead of relating his views in support of, or against Alfred Woyome's attainment of swindling Ghana, he rather expressed his doubt about the integrity of Nana Akuffo Addo and Kennedy Agyapon.
Well, whether Richard Quashigah's form of communication is aimed at influencing the public positively or negatively, i leave it to my cherished readers to judge.

To mention without discussing at length, Kobby Acheampong, the Deputy Interior Minister signifies that type of leader who is more interested in satisfying his greed and lust for power. As Lord Acton wrote: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." He, Kobby Acheampong exhibited gross arrogance of power by asking the policemen who arrested him for driving recklessly over the established speed limit, "do you know who i am?" and even went on to call them "stupid." Yet he escapes punishment for driving over the established speed limit. Clearly, the rule of law has been undermined, as this classic incident tells us that President Mills's government is above the law.

The Animal Farm brings to light the enthuastic attitudes of some political strutures and personalities in Ghana who enjoy the luxury of attaining power to the neglect of the masses making it seem to other countries that Ghana is a better place to be.

In conclusion, so long as the society cannot remember the past because it is being continually altered, they will have no control over the present and hence the future.

IS LIVERPOOL INDEBTED TO DALGLISH?

Perhaps a problem with any temporary managerial appointment is that even when it's made permanent,it doesn't feel as secure as it would if someone had been the sole target,recruiting or headhunting especially for the task. There's always a sense of second choice hanging in the air.

I have never for one moment felt Kenny Dalglish would make a poor Liverpool manager;he understands too much about too many aspects of the job,particularly at a club with extremely large expectations. It's why he was a logical choice when Roy Hodgson was as out of his distance between the dorsal and the ventral points of his body. He just couldn't survive the immense pressure,and so how much more certain names like Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers who are being linked with the job.

But the question has always been just how good can Kenny Dalglish make Liverpool? At first,it was about stabilizing the club,and in general,he did that,first with improved league form,and getting to two cup finals. But it's not quite convincing; with the cup runs has come disappointing league form. Which way will it had gone next season? Will the cup performances be translated to the league next season,or were there problems that extended far downward below the surface? We would've known all these if Dalglish was still in charge.

The fans will always look to any manager's past history and simply expect him to replicate them in the club but what they forget is that,the circumstances are always different between one job and another. Anyone who wants to transplant what Pep Guardiola did,then it had been suicidal,as they will not get the smallest amount of Barcelona's genes but looking back,what Kenny Dalglish did at Liverpool was in many ways akin or related to Pep Guardiola's achievements at Barcelona. So why then was Dalglish not given another year because a year and a few months wasn't enough.

That was his first full season in charge coupled with new players,it's fair to say it had been a satisfactory season for Liverpool,with wildly inconsistent league form together with remarkable results in domestic cup competitions that saw them win the Carling Cup and second best to Chelsea in the FA Cup final.

That was a funny old season for Dalglish and Liverpool,and giving him another year,he could have turned things around.

BY: NANA YAW OLALLA
@FUSSBOL TALKZ

"THE STENCH OF GHANA FOOTBALL

Widely considered to be unruly and destructive behaviour,actions such as brawling,vandalism and intimidation are enacted by fans of association football clubs.
This is known as football hooliganism.

Just like a canker, the behaviour of shouts and small-scale fistfights, through to huge riots where fans especially, attack one another or match officials, has become an erosive spreading sore in Ghana football. The game that helps to foster unity and bring people together has now become the game of stadium brawls causing fans to flee in panic.

Looking at our exploits in the Africa and international stage, Ghana can never be dismissed to an inferior rank or position in terms of football. Can that be said about the local league? No doubt, every domestic league in the world has its own problem but what many football fans do not want to see is hooliganism, and undeniably, it happens to be the major problem in our local league.

The disorderly mass at our league centres are some of the reasons why people refuse to go the stadia to watch league matches thus this issue must be addressed with no action of another in disregard of one's rights. I wouldn't want to recall all incidents of violence because this canker has reared its offensive and displeasing face at almost every league centre. So to speak, it is a national problem which needs much attention and if nothing is done about the advancing cases of violence, the league which is already losing its attractiveness will no longer have relevance or significance.

The game of football is three things,win, lose and draw but that's not the issue in our part of the world. And that's what make the fans in Europe unique or being without a like. They are able to accept defeat unlike the fans in our local league who are always ruled by their hearts. They have always failed to recognize that a loss or a draw cannot be avoided. So then, the question has always been just how good can situations turn around?

As a measure to discourage others, fans who misbehave must not be spared and should be made to face the full harshness of the law and the stiffest of punishment meted to them. The media also has a role to play in dealing with hooliganism in our game. For they must be bold in naming and putting to shame culprits, and most importantly educating football enthusiasts to be polite and well mannered at match venues.

More so, if we are able to instill this into our football fans, we stand a barely adequate or no amout of hooliganism in Ghana football.

LONG LIVE GHANA FOOTBALL!! !!
NANA YAW OLALLA
@FUSSBOL TALKZ

why Andre Villas Boas failed at Chelsea

WHY AVB FAILED

In his first season at FC Porto, he won the Portuguese league, Portuguese super cup, Millenium Cup, and the Europa cup. He went the whole season with only four defeats, two in the pre-season, one in the league cup and one in the Millenium cup. So basically, he was undefeated in the Portuguese league.
During his time at Porto, he utilized the set-up of 4-3-3 constantly but it wasn't corresponding. Andre Villas Boas altered the formation to expose the weaknesses of the opposition and ensure the strength of his squad.

The back four consisted of Pereira, Maicon, Rolando and Sapanaru. They played a high-line with high pressing game which meant,goalkeeper Helton was a sweeper kind of keeper.

The three in midfield were Fernando, Moutinho and Belluschi. Fernando was basically breaking up play, meaning he was the central point but more importantly starting play all over passing differently.
Moutinho played as the central playmaker but also dropped deep to cover Fernando.

The forward line constantly had Varela, Falcao and Hulk.
Varela's role was making good use of his pace but also had the natural width and could run at defences.
Falcao played the traditional number '9' role, holding up the ball and finishing off moves. Hulk played as the modified winger going in and linking with Falcao. This always exposed the wide right freeing up Belluschi,and then causing an overload on the right. In that, the opposition always tries to to counter the overload on the right exposing the left unknowingly,creating more room for Varela on the left.

The full backs also joined the attack whilst the centre backs would spread with Fernando pushing in to create a
3-4-3 set-up. This meant FC Porto yielded easily to pressure and were able to adapt to different situations in attack and defence.

After Porto, he was decided on beforehand as the manager of Chelsea. He was determined to act in a certain way by implementing the same philosophy from Porto at Chelsea. This concept included the gradual stopping of the older players who were apparently less suited to his philosophy. In that he signed Mata, Meireles, Romeu and Lukaku but failed to sign Modric, Moutinho and Pereira.

The player roles were almost similar to his roles at FC Porto but one main difference was with Juan Mata who was linked more in the central play but still delivered the natural width, pace and skill to expose holes.

Romeu was bought because of his quick thinking ability and great distribution of the ball. He always kept the ball moving and took pressure off other players.

Ramires suited the right side, moving into empty spaces due to his pace and stamina. And he was and is still an attacking threat as Barcelona and Liverpool found out.

Sturridge was the inverted or modified right winger, though a left-footer, he used that role effectively, scored important goals from that position but was quick to voice out his opinion of wanting to play the central position.

Cole and Bosingwa were successful under Andre Villas Boas as they made many assists in the first half of the season.

Undeniably, there were problems in his system. John Terry was not happy playing as a high-line and to the same effect, nor was Petr Cech. John Terry is not a quick thinker who can see an attack ahead but rather a traditional centre back who puts his body on the line. He isn't of similar style to Gerard Pique, that was why Gary Cahill was brought in. Also Cech, an excellent shot stopper, is not an aggressive sweeper keeper, and right from there, the problems started.

Villas Boas did not trust Lampard to take up the midfield role with other two occupied by Romeu and Ramires, simply because he was too attack-minded and not disciplined enough.

Torres was the first choice but due to his obsolete confidence and awful form. Drogba had to step in. However, it was brought to light that Drogba didn't like the idea of being a second choice, and was disquieted as a result. Also he had to go to the African Cup of Nations, meant Andre Villas Boas was left with an out of form and unhappy striker, Fernando Torres.

Clearly, John Terry didn't want to be a nitwit by playing as a high-line, Lampard didn't like not playing regularly and Drogba didn't like the idea of playing second fiddle to Torres. Right there,Andre Villas Boas lost the dressing room to the key players of Chelsea. And what made it worse was his autocratic style of leadership, ostracizing both Nicolas Anelka and Alex.

More so, Andre Villas Boas was so stubborn to change the philosophy which never suited his team; and he was quoted as saying that he was not going to sell his philosophy so 'cheaply'.

In conclusion, Andre Villas Boas isn't a bad manager but factors like failing to alter his system to suit his team and losing the dressing room authority caused him his job.