Black Stars should shut door on Mensah, Essien - Nyaho

Former GFA boss Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe has descended heavily on all those who are calling for a recall to the national team for experienced players like captain John Mensah, goalie Richard Kingson, defender John Paintsil, Micahel Essien and others.

Many of the biggest names in the senior national team over the past decade were absent as the Black Stars Lesotho 7-0 in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying game recently. It was the first competitive match in charge for local helmsman Kwasi Appiah as Ghana coach.

But after the side lost the very next game, also a World Cup qualifier, to Zambia, the media has been beset by endless calls for the return of the old hands to help Ghana avoid the ignominy of not making the Mundial.

But former Army doctor Nyaho is adamant that Coach Appiah forget about the “so-called” experienced players and invest in youth. He told 90 MINUTES:

“For me that is not an argument. We have to phase out the old players and concentrate on young players. In modern football, its young people who do well. They have more strength, they can run, they don’t get tired easily and they have stamina.

“This is simple in medicine, the way a 20 year old can run, a 40 year old cannot. Most of these players are over 40 years old. Don’t you see the young player who was given a chance against Lesotho? Christian Atsu, these are the kind of players we need now.

“Even if you watched the recent European Championships, all the teams that had old players were knocked out.”

The man who once sacked the entire Hearts of Oak team and replaced them with young players when he took over the administration of that club back in 1986, is not even afraid to mention names.

“We have to strengthen the Black Stars with a lot of young players who are fresh and allow them to know the terrain. In modern football, you need one or two experienced players and the rest have to be young if you want to succeed,” Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe stated to 90 MINUTES.

He added: “I picked John Mensah into the Black Stars and I left the Black Stars like ten years ago, and he was playing for many years before we brought him into the Black Stars.

“Derek Boateng, was I not the one who called him into Black Stars? These people are old, forget them,”