Big Boom, Staring Hearts

Hearts of Oak football is now facing a race against the clock in an attempt to come to grips with the worst phase in its history.

Since winning the 2000 CAF Champions League and the Africa Clubs Super Cup, Hearts of Oak squad has been going to into a steady decline in which they've been managing to win the national league and notch up a series of flops in the continental competition. In the home front, R.T.U. Kotoko, King Faisal and Liberty professionals have been drilling the Phobians from pillar to post.

One of Herbert Addo's mistakes is to train the team too defensively. Hearts today is going through a barren period in terms of exceptional talent, which they have, in abundance. Although the team has good players and can build a team on a par with the best in the nation and the continent, the fortunes of the club keep fluctuating. Reason number one; the coach makes his wards prisoners of tactics.

This theory explains the difficulty facing players who were scorers and idolised at their tactical demands, thereby failing to deliver the goods when playing now with Hearts. So far the work of Herbert Addo has been anything but brilliant and to be brutally frank, and frankly brutal, he has to review his tactical conviction. He will have to spend much time and effort in resolving the chronic problems evident in the team: the fragile defence, the limited creativity in midfield, and the poor and wayward shots in the strikers.

The management should not remain unperturbed by the recent blunders and the challenges posed by the future. For club supporters are really worried and talking about these problems at the bars, restaurants and other bases. Management should tackle the bull by the horn to help solve the issue.

The supporters have backed so far, management against Coach Jones Attuquayefio and have also backed management's stand against the Bright Akwetey group. But if the blunders continue and the losses increase both board management will find themselves elbowed out. It will therefore be of paramount importance for the two organs to sit straight and mend the net, otherwise, Hearts will experience a big Boom.