Maybe, we are now learning to have patience with football coaches when we falter at competitions, including the World Cup and the African Nations Championship.
That is what I can glean from the news that there is the possibility that Carlos Queiroz might be retained with a contract extension.
We must applaud the coach who, even within the short period that he took over the Black Stars, demonstrated a willingness to have a positive impact on our players.
But we need to develop and grow footballers, not just hunt players without appreciating and assessing their understanding, commitment and loyalty to the country.
Queiroz enjoyed the trust and confidence of the players who see him as competent, and typical of the unalloyed respect Ghanaians extend to older people, noting that Queiroz is past 70 years, a grandfather, there was obeisance.
But in reality, we should not be obsessed with the fact that we did better in the 2026 World Cup than at Qatar.
In both situations, we exited at the group of 32, the difference being that 32 teams participated in the Mundial in Qatar as against 48 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Had the participants not been increased, we would have come home at the group stage.
This comment is not to downplay the efforts of our national men’s team.
I have held such a position for a long time, and in 1976, it nearly cost me my life.
Whilst at the Lower 6th at Asankrangwa Secondary School, students of Boadum House contributed money to purchase beverages for our athletes during an inter-house athletics competition.
An Upper Six student, Senior Mortey, from Kpedze in the Volta Region, represented us in the 100-metre race but placed last.
At a subsequent evaluation meeting, I said anybody can run and be last either by running slowly or staying still after the whistle blows for commencement.
Angry
Senior Mortey was angry and attempted to stab me with a fork, and would have fatally wounded me but for the swift intervention of the house prefect.
When tempers cooled, I still calmly told Senior Mortey he wasted our money.
That is why I will not accept that we did better this year than in the previous one.
The only thing, typical of diehard fans of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak, is that if their team beats the other, especially home and away, it does not matter their place on the league table except relegation.
Just because we played a goalless draw with England does not mean that we excelled in the tournament, not forgetting that Cape Verde and Egypt held Argentina to 3-2 defeats.
Drawing with England was honourable; we could not scale through to the 1/16th stage, poorer than South Africa in 2010, when Uruguay spoiled our lot.
On Thursday, April 9, 2026, I wrote in the Daily Graphic that the termination of the appointment of Otto Addo, at the time it happened and the reasoning for the act, were wrong and not in the best interest of the country.
I insinuated that it could have been premised on some parochial interests to have some players included in the team beyond whatever vulnerabilities that the coach carried.
I wrote, "Why did they not dismiss him but spend money to provide him with diffused technical assistance and then dismiss him at the last hour so that our participation and success at the group level now hangs perilously.
At this late hour, what can a new coach, who hardly knows the players, be able to do independently and professionally, to constitute the team without interference from some overweening hands?"
I wrote a follow-up on April 16, 2026, with the headline " PLAYERS, NOT COACHES SCORE GOALS", emphasising that "the Ghana Football Association and sections of the media seem to be engulfed in an euphoria, which suggests ‘Eureka’, that a solution has been found that will see the Black Stars do well in the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
This is informed by the appointment of a new head coach, Carlos Queiroz, a man with a Midas touch, who would turn around the fortunes of our national male football team overnight.
Queiroz success
"The approval and belief from the media could be gleaned and observed from the long historical narrations of the successes achieved by Queiroz from football clubs to national teams across continents: Asia, Africa, South America and Europe".
I then referred to two sayings that "no matter how tall your grandfather, you must do your own growing', and "If you carry a fish from the water into the forest and ask it to climb a tree, it will not be able to do that and you may end up assuming that the fish is foolish but the reality is that the fish was never created to climb trees.
"That is where I have my doubts whether Queiroz could prove equal to the assignment and the players would sacrifice for our country", stressing that "If we fail to move beyond our previous record at the World Cup, we should not undeservedly ruin Queiroz, because no fish is created to climb a tree and more so coaches do not score goals because they are not part of the players on the field of play.
It is when players are determined, committed and dedicated to the cause and course of the nation through cohesiveness of their play that goals can be scored".
In my conclusion, I noted that "The next time it happens where management disturbs the pace of preparation, it is the management that must fall for accountability.
That indeed was the essence of the comment by Queiroz that football matches are not won only from the pitch, but through systematic planning, search for talents, development, nurturing and mentoring of players.
That is why our bubble burst must be placed on the heads of the GFA executives, not the coach or the players.
There is also the need for our football commentators and analysts to refrain from conspiracy theories and pointedly educate our football players and fans to understand that football is played for 90 minutes, and that our players are not inferior to others from any continent, such that when we score to lead, we protect it with determination but not to surrender with complacency.
Otherwise, we would be misguiding them to think that no African team can stand up to a European or South American team.
The embarrassment of Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, DR Congo and Egypt must be condemned and not applauded in disguise.
When Belgium realised that FIFA was doing politics with them, they resolutely smashed the US Men's National Team and taunted President Trump and FIFA President Infantino to reverse the 4-1 thrashing as they did with the red card shown to Balogun.
