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The dynamics of a seemingly imminent Maxwell Konadu-Kotoko reunion

The Black Stars interim coach is being tipped to return to his former club

The 44-year-old, currently the interim coach of the Black Stars until May 1 (which really is a fancy title as he gets to play no game until Kwasi Appiah's second tenure officially begins), visited Kotoko during training, at a time when the former coach of the club, Croat Zdravko Lugarusic, had gone on leave back in his native Croatia.

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"I just paid them a visit at their training grounds here in Accra and so I don't see the rationale behind peddling rumours on me taking up the coaching job," Konadu said, speaking to Kumasi-based radio station FOX FM.

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''These are some of the things they do in preventing former coaches and playing body from going near the club. If you try to step a foot at their training grounds, people will start reading a whole lot of meaning to it."

That was around the 21st of March.

And it's frightening and number of things that have happened since then.

Kotoko went into their crucial Ghana Premier League match day eight clash against Hearts of Oak in Accra and lost.

Then they went a further three games without a win, a run of form that cost Logarusic his job, despite being third on the table with 19 points from eleven games.

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Now, the conversation of Konadu going back to the job he first had from 2011 to 2012 seems to have become louder.

On Tuesday, Ghanasportsonline reported that Konadu has agreed personal terms with his former employers, setting up a reunion that would be announced soon.

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Konadu, assistant coach of Ghana since May 2012, serving under two coaches, has been a key topic of discussion ever since the GFA announced the return of coach Kwesi Appiah to the helm of the Black Stars.

Many believe his time as assistant is up after five long years of service, and this has especially been a strong claim coming in the wake of the rumours that incoming coach Appiah prefers former Ghana international Ibrahim Tanko as assistant, though he had worked with Konadu during his first stint from 2012 to 2014.

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The timing for a Konadu-Kotoko reunion now seems perfect: the man needs a job in case he loses out holding down his slot as Black Stars assistant coach, and here is a job he is familiar with - and indeed, one he handled with success in the past - opening up.

The opportunity is yawning.

And he is a popular figure at the club too. Apart from having excelled as a prolific, markedly dread-locked striker for the Porcupine Warriors in the early 90s, Konadu returned to the club close to two decades later as coach to lead them to their 21st league title.

It had happened when after assisting Serbian coach Bogdan Korak for a while, he got his promotion ahead of the 2011-12 season after Korak's sacking by the Kotoko management. He went on to win the 2011-12 Ghana Premier League title with an impressive 13 point gap, losing only three games out of 30, his side playing a brand of attacking football that won the hearts of fans and neutrals alike.

Konadu achieved the title win in his first season in charge, his very first try, impressively coming off the back of only three years of top level coaching experience (spent at Wa All Stars (from 2009 to 2011).

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With his services in hot demand, Konadu left the Kotoko job after that league triumph to take up a post with the Black Stars as assistant coach, a move many felt was engineered by Ghana Football Association President Kwesi Nyantakyi, who owns Wa All Stars, the club that gave Konadu a platform to properly launch his coaching career.

The coach will be returning to Kotoko - if the rumours are true - with a lot more experience, having had stints coaching Ghana's U-20. U-23 and Local Black Stars teams, the latter of which he led to silver medals at the 2014 African Nations Championship in South Africa. Besides, many believe he has some unfinished business at the club - after winning the title five years ago, he did not stay on to guide the club in the CAF Champions League. There is a sense that he never exhausted the full course of his first stint; that the Black Stars robbed Kotoko of their beloved coach when he was just about hitting his peak.

READ MORE: Today In History

Well, that chance to explore the 'what-if' has come. Konadu looks set to come full circle.

And with the majority sentiment of the Kotoko fandom favouring the hiring of a local tactician after the failure of Logarusic, Konadu - with his track record and history with the club - seems the perfect fit to bring back the good feeling for the record 23-time Ghana Premier League champions, who have not won a title since 2014.

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**Kotoko is currently managed by assistant coach Godwin Ablordey, with support from 'Technical Advisor' Frimpong Manso**

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