Hearts won’t be stampeded to appoint new coach
Accra Hearts of Oak has said it would not be stampeded into deciding who replaces their axed coach, Martinus Koopman.
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Last Tuesday, the contract of the 67-year-old Dutchman was terminated in what the club described as “part of the club’s grand aim of restructuring the technical team as we continue with the 2023/24 football season.
But sources close to the club told Graphic Sports in an interview last Friday that the club decided to dispense with the services of the coach purely on the grounds of non-performance and nothing else after just two wins in 10 matches.
“He is gone because he was not performing the way we expected him to do and a coach who doesn’t perform well always has to be sacked,” the source noted.
According to the source, Koopman was given all the opportunities, including offering him a technical head to offer some advice, but that could not yield any positive result for the club.
Graphic Sports understands that the technical head doubted the capabilities of the coach after observing his performance with the team for a while.
“I remember I interviewed the technical director and asked him whether he thought this coach could take us through the league to place, at least, third position and his answer was no,” the source hinted.
The source said Nii Noi Thompson has been drafted to assist Coach Abdul Bashiru in taking the team through the season and added that they would storm the transfer market at the appropriate time to recruit a new coach.
The source hinted that in as much as a local coach would be the most preferred candidate, they would look for someone who was more experienced and also understood the club’s philosophy.
“We have not identified anybody to replace Koopman yet. We are still searching, and the team would love to appoint an experienced Ghanaian coach,” the source said.
The source noted that even though the door would not be shut to foreign coaches, preference would be given to a Ghanaian gaffer.
To avoid any future legal tussle, the source said the club would honour any financial obligations that might have accrued as stipulated in the coach’s contract.
“We have not identified anybody to replace Koopman yet. We are still searching, and the team would love to appoint an experienced Ghanaian coach,” the source said.