Former Sports Minister Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye has expressed his disagreement with the decision to dismiss Chris Hughton as the coach of the Black Stars following their unexpected early exit from AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast.
During an appearance on TV3’s Hot Issues program, Vanderpuye suggested that Hughton’s wealth of expertise could be better utilized within the Ghana Football Association (GFA) in a technical role, rather than terminating his contract.
He emphasized that Hughton’s valuable connections and experience could contribute significantly to the development of Ghanaian footballers and coaches.
Mr Vanderpuye proposed that Hughton be assigned to create a development strategy for retired footballers, facilitating their transition into coaching roles in the future.
He believes that such a strategy would contribute to building Ghana’s human resource capacity and reduce the reliance on foreign coaches in the long run.
“Chris Hughton’s sacking is not the solution, and if I were in government, the amount of money we spent on Chris Hughton, I would rather wish that we don’t sack him but redeploy him to the technical Secretariat,” Vanderpuye said.
“And then what I will do is to assemble close to 50 of our former players, retired footballers, and say Chris Hughton, we want you to develop a development strategy for these people to become coaches in the future. So, we are building our human resource capacity.”
Vanderpuye envisions a scenario where Chris Hughton, leveraging his extensive coaching background, establishes a comprehensive training program for aspiring coaches. The program would encompass various aspects of the game and include practical attachments to clubs.
In this vision, Vanderpuye anticipates that such an initiative would result in a substantial enhancement of the quality of coaching in Ghana’s domestic leagues.
“Chris Hughton has the connections, he has coached so many teams in Europe, in England, so he would be able to get attachments for these people,” Vanderpuye explained.
“He, with his experience, can draw up a sort of syllabus for them to go through. He can take them to the training, and those who excel could be attached to our clubs. So that Accra Hearts of Oak doesn’t need to go and get a coach from South Africa or anywhere, or Asante Kotoko cannot go to any other country. Because these people would have had the qualification from the sort of training and attachment programs that have been developed by the Technical Secretariat of the FA.
“And they will, and then what will happen is that they will now send something to our local football, it will help the development of our local game. And some of these people can go to lower divisions, from the Premier League to the Division One, Division Two. And you’ll see that there will be a total revolution in the technical development of our football in the country.”
Chris Hughton was appointed in early 2023, and during his coaching tenure, his record was subpar, accumulating four wins, four draws, and five losses. The win-loss-draw ratio stood at 30.77%, 30.77%, and 38.46%, respectively.
His team scored only 13 goals, averaging one goal per match, while conceding 16 times. Given these results, the decision to part ways with Hughton was widely accepted by Ghanaians, reflecting the perceived underperformance during his tenure as the coach of the Black Stars.