Michael Osei has his job cut out for him

Michael Osei is likely to be handed the Asante Kotoko job, because he is their own and has won the hearts of both management and supporters.

Osei was brought to assist Mas-ud Didi Dramani, so that in the near future he would assume the topmost position on the technical bench of the team.

Maxwell Konadu came to Kotoko as an assistant coach but ended up as the substantive coach, following the dismissal of Bogdan Korac and the same story is likely to happen, but it is based on the sort of results Osei would get for his idol club.

Konadu was an instant hit at Kotoko winning the league in a grand style to restore their championship feat.

Kotoko fans believe Michael Osei is a lucky coach, since he was the coach who guided Kotoko to beat Inter Allies to win the 2014 FA Cup, while he was also in charge of the G-6 triumph their side chalked in the pre-season.

Osei started his job on Sunday with an emphatic 3-1 victory over Liberty Professionals to bring back smiles on faces of the Kotoko fans, but I am yet to be convinced, like many others in the football fraternity, since the playing body of any team play above themselves to please a new manager, so that they can be in his good books.

Kotoko have lost all their three away league matches this season, so until Michael Osei rewrites that poor away run and bring some stability to the team he can’t hold a firm grip on the Kotoko job.

He was given the duties of a stop-gap coach when the management of the club told Mas-ud Didi Dramani to proceed on leave, following the club’s poor start to their title defence last season, but he couldn’t turn things around, as he drew all the three league games under his care, influencing management to settle on David Duncan. From match day 8-10 last season under Osei: Kotoko 0-0 WAFA; Chelsea 1-1 Kotoko; Kotoko 1-1 Medeama

Although Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the life patron and owner of Kumasi Asante Kotoko in his meeting with the major stakeholders of the club on Monday at the Mahyia Palace in an attempt to resolve the ongoing crisis in the club told the board to sort issues with David Duncan, I still think Michael Osei would make the Kotoko coaching job his own when he put up a consistent performance to make the fans happy.

Moreover, David Duncan can only be reinstated and work under a conducive atmosphere when the current management team is dissolved, because they made it clear at Manhyia that the battle line is drawn between them to the extent that a management member voiced out David Duncan’s coaching ideas have reached its optimum and he has nothing to offer again.

Hence, the return of David Duncan would be at the expense of Opoku Nti who would have to step aside and it would be difficult too for David Duncan to work with Michael Osei, so for the former Kotoko midfielder to ensure his dream of coaching the Kotoko team come to pass, he has to churn out the kind of results that would make the fans excited.

In that case the board can’t touch him, because the supporters will throw their weight behind him to make the board very unpopular.

If he has any magic to conjure, it ought to start from their away game against Dreams FC at the dreaded Theatre of Dreams at Dawu, where the debutants, who managed to dismantle the two years unbeaten home run of Ashgold last weekend have made there a fortress.

That would make a case for him and the love that the supporters have for him would reach its climax for taking them from ‘Egypt’ to ‘Canaan’, the promised land.