Enterprising Ghanaian tactician Ignatius Osei-Fosu, head coach of Ghana Premier League side, Techiman Eleven Wonders is confident, his team will beat Kumasi Asante Kotoko in the week one fixture of the 2020/2021 Ghana Premier League.
Tagged as the favorites to lift the league title, Kumasi Asante Kotoko have strengthened their squad with marquee signings including midfielder Latif Anabila and defender Mubarik Yussif, all formerly of Ashanti Gold but according to the young tactician, Kotoko’s signings don’t put fear in him as they can beat any team.
The new campaign is scheduled to start on the weekend of November 13-16 with the Porcupine Warrior kicking off their season with a tricky clash against Techiman Eleven Wonders FC. This will be a repeat of the week one fixture in the recently annulled 2019/2020 league season where Kotoko won by 1-0 against the Techiman based side at the Baba Yara sports stadium in December 2019.
Speaking to Stephen Zando on Kumasi based YFM, Ignatius Osei-Fosu, who has been in charge of Eleven Wonders for about a year now dismissed calls that Kotoko remain the favorites for that game, stating, his team will beat the reds to kick start their campaign
“They [Kotoko] can say they will beat us because nobody goes into a war thinking about defeat so it’s good for them to think about a win, he [Mawell Konadu] wants to give them some positive attitude”. He said
“As technical team, we are happy with how our boys played in our last friendly match, we are still working and we hope to be ready before our game against Kotoko.
“Whether we play Kotoko first, second or last, we will still play them so there is no need to be afraid. It’s even good we are meeting them this time because they’ve brought about eight players now so there will be no cohesion.
“Again, for us as Eleven Wonders, we are not afraid of any side because I feel, we have quality in depth in the team.
“I have said already that Kotoko may have pedigree, an African club of the century, branding and all that but when it comes to personnel, I don’t think they are better than us so for me, we are going to beat them.
Asked, how Kotoko’s activity in the transfer market may position them as favorite for the fixture, Ignatius suggested, Kotoko may have been cheated with the purchases they have made so far.
“When you go to the market and you buy a shoe for 100 cedis and I also go to buy the same shoe for 50 cedis, it doesn’t mean yours is of quality than mine it could be that, you’ve been cheated and it’s possible because people are cheated on the transfer market.
“We’ve seen this several times from the teams, this same Kotoko, we’ve seen several times that they have bought players we thought are of quality, after one season, they offload them so what do you say about that? It’s not about the names, it’s not about the hype, it’s about the work they will do on the field.” He added
“My team is making strategic signings, where we fell short last season is where we will be strengthening, we lost Kwadwo Asamoah so we are looking to beef up different positions.” He finished.
Techiman Eleven Wonders earned 19 points after 15 games, just 6 points behind Kotoko who were third with 25 points before the league was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
By: Stephen Zando/YFM
