Kotoko appoint Pollack as coach
Frimpong Manso made an earlier-than-expected exit through Kumasi Asante Kotoko’s managerial revolving door yesterday as the club made the surprise appointment of Steven Pollack as their caretaker coach until the end of the season.
Advertisement
The former Berekum Chelsea Technical Director becomes Kotoko’s fourth technical head — the club started the season with Michael Osei who was sacked and replaced with Croatian Zdravko Logarusic who made way for Frimpong Manso last month.
The move could be seen as a panic reaction by the Dr Kwame Kyei-led management to avert a full blown crisis after the club lost 0-2 to Accra Great Olympics in a Premier League clash last Saturday at the Accra Sports Stadium, having been beaten 3-1 by archrival Accra Hearts of Oak days earlier in a challenge cup match at the same.
The appointment of Pollack did not come as a surprise to Nana Kwame Dankwah, head of Kotoko’s supporters union in the Greater Accra Region, who disclosed to the Graphic Sports that the club’s management had hinted the supporters body about moves to get a coach to handle the club for the rest of the season due to a loss of confidence in the caretaker coach, Frimpong Manso.
For him, the appointment of the new coach was a move intended to save the team from the losing spree and subsequently salvage the image of the club.
“On the supporters front we knew there were efforts by the management immediately after the Olympics match to lo0ok for a new coach,” the Greater Accra Regional Circles Committee chairman said.
Last Saturday’s loss to a struggling Olympics not only extended Kotoko’s winless streak to seven league games, but also saw the club slipping to the eighth position on the league log nine points off leaders WAFA.
After Kotoko’s fourth away loss last Saturday, a bemused Frimpong Manso admitted that things were not working for the team. “We don’t know what’s wrong with the team. We have tried to change things but it is still not working for us. It has been difficult so far,” he said. It was an honest admission that the coach was at his wit’s end and his exit a month into the job was not surprising.
“We thought Frimpong Manso could save the team but since he came things have not changed. He was a stop gap coach and was asked to come and support Ablordey so he was aware that he was only helping Kotoko after the first round of the league,” Nana Dankwah told the Graphic Sports yesterday on the sidelines of the May 9 Disaster commemorations at the Accra Stadium yesterday.
The supporters’ leader disclosed also that the club’s management had directed all Regional Circles to hold emergency meetings to collate concerns from the supporters’ front and also ask them to remain calm.
Meanwhile, former Kotoko coach, Osei was named yesterday by Dansoman-based Liberty Professionals as the club's new head coach.
Osei, who was sacked by Kotoko on January 23, will be assisted by Ignatius Osei while Sellas Tetteh plays an advisory role as Liberty’s Technical Director.
Osei is expected to be at the bench when the Scientific Soccer lads take on Accra Hearts of Oak in a Premier League fixture at the Carl Reindorf Park on Sunday.
