Revealed: Hearts stopped Coach Matic from sacking top goalie
The hierarchy of Accra Hearts of Oak appears to be ruing the decision to hand over a blank cheque to their under-fire Serbian gaffer, Slavko Matic, to put some key players on transfer.
Advertisement
Under Matic the club dispensed with a number of key players, but a late intervention of some management and board members stopped the Serbian from axing their first choice goalie, Richard Attah.
Upon his appointment as head coach of the club, Matic dispensed with the services of the club’s captain, Fatawu Mohammed, and his assistant, Alhassan Mohammed, as well as some other key players.
Both the captain and his assistant have since found favour with other clubs with Alhassan joining rivals Asante Kotoko, while Fatawu is said to have moved to Egyptian second division side Bani Sweef.
The coach's decision irked Fatawu who went public and made some allegations against the club and some officials, claiming the salary wasn’t good enough to take one home and further accused the club of lacking knowledge about player management.
After a sober reflection, the hierarchy of the club seems to have regretted allowing the coach to clear out the players and particularly the deputy skipper who was then considered one of the best centre-backs in the country.
A highly-placed source told the Graphic Sports in an interview that even though the management did not want to interfere in the job of the coach, they shouldn’t have allowed the Serbian gaffer to axe Alhassan from the team.
The source indicates that but for the intervention of the board, the coach would have axed goalkeeper Richard Atta too, stating that how could a coach just come in and clear some of their top players, including the goalkeeper, who had been their number one throughout the previous season.
''But for our intervention the coach would have sacked Richard Atta too. A goalkeeper who has been our number one for all these years then you say he should go because you don’t like him'', the source noted.