Former Hearts of Oak midfielder Esme Mends has called on the two glamourous club in Ghana Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak to invest in the club and stop living on their past glories.
According to Mends, both Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko fail to compete in the continental competitions due to their inability to invest hugely into the club by buying quality players to be able to match their competitors like TP Mezembe, Esperance, Zamalek etc.
Mends who is now a FIFA intermediary and a scout insists the only way Kotoko and Hearts can compete on the continental stage is by pumping money in the club.
“There is a problem with Hearts and Kotoko and the problem is, our Hearts of Oak and Kotoko live on past glories,” Esme Mends told ghanasportspage.com.
He continued saying, without investing into the club, you can compete domestically but will be outclassed when they go out for continental competitions.
“In Ghana it might work for you but when you travel outside and play against the TP Mezembes you can’t.
“You can’t compete because now football is money (investment), when you don’t pump money into it, when you don’t buy the right players into your club, no, you’ll fail, you can’t compete with them.
The midfielder also advised the management of the two clubs to set up a good marketing structure that will help them to attract more sponsors.
“TP Mezembe came to poach about five boys from Ghana; the Gladson Awakos the…you name them to win [CAF] Champions League year in year out with them.
“We are in Ghana here and we can’t even poach Ivorian players or even Nigerian players. We depend on our local boys who we can’t even feed, you understand. We are not ready to expand, we don’t invest money into the team”, he compared.
“Sometimes Hearts and Kotoko win the league and complain they don’t have money to play Africa, no, find money, there is money here in Ghana find it because TP Mezembe and the likes they don’t take grants from Europe or depend….they run the club to make money.
“Until Hearts and Kotoko stop this we won the Champions League in the year 2000, we’ve won Confederation Cup (referring to Hearts of Oak), Kotoko has won this and that, no, it’s the same reason why even our Black Stars has not been able to win a cup since 1982 because while other countries are improving because they are trying to compete with the Europeans, we are here and living on past glories.
“Now Hearts of Oak can’t even compete with teams in say Tanzania that play Africa year in year out, no, and it shouldn’t be so. They should invest into it and buy quality materials”, he advised.
