Restoring team unity biggest job in Black Stars now

Uncertainty about the coach's future, players unhappy and distrustful of each other, too many key names who have mastered the art of bench warming and a fan base who have lost trust in brand they have previously so strongly put their emotional energies behind.

And as all that threatens to rip the Black Stars apart, there are two world cup qualifiers to prepare for in June against Lesotho and then another one against African Champions Zambia.

Ghana football has seen a lot of this before. The chaos after the 1992 Nations Cup and the storm over captaincy. In 1994 we brooded for days over Anthony Yeboah's then strange white boots and divisions in the side. Every Cup of Nations comes with its own set of problems lately but one veteran journalist who has lived through it all before reckons this must be the worst case of player distrust he has ever seen.

As the Ghana Football Association ponders on how to get rid of Goran Stevanovic and whether it  is the way forward for the Black Stars, there are bigger issues that they must deal with. Bigger issues that bother on the strength, spirit and unity of the team.

Stevanovic's claims of players using juju against each other that has made the Stars set up a mockery in the eyes of the world were as extra ordinary as it was was unfortunate. Unfortunate because players would expect that the issues they discuss in the dressing room and when they sit in closed door meetings will remain behind those closed doors.

In defence of Stevanovic, he merely captured an aftermath of finger pointing and accusations after that defeat by Zambia in a stormy meeting where players freely accused each other of being responsible for their poor performances through spiritual means and sometimes for their inability to score goals.

It seems that what we were fed with from Franceville of nightly prayer sessions when members of the Black Stars sang and danced, held hand as a sign of unity and enjoyed themselves so well were all a facade for the viewing public.

Inside Villa Ngoni but above all in the hearts and minds of those players there were bigger issues. Issues bothering on mistrust, back biting, paranoia and fear of competition.

To build team spirit again may prove the biggest challenge of all, not sacking Goran Stevanovic and replacing him.

It is no coincidence that Ghana's purple patch in world football coincided with the period when Stephen Appiah captained a side whose backbone was the 2001 World Under-20 team. They grew up together, got their passage into the Black Stars around the same time and knew each other so well. That sense of unity and understanding is priceless for a football team and it seems managing another transition is what is proving tricky.

These days members of the 2009 World Under-20 team are growing in prominence in the squad. And many of the 'seniors' feel they have earned a level of reverence and respect that they don't get from their 'juniors'. That is why GFA president Kwesi Nyantekyie speaks of disrespect in the camp.

There are some hard facts that all the players must face. The senior players must understand that they will not play for the team eternally. This habit of throwing tantrums once their names are not on the team sheet is plain lousy. Too many of them too, inactive at club level seem to almost thing that their places in the national team must be a matter of right now. And they conveniently forget that at the turn of the century when they more established names were shoved aside for them, it was a similar principle of blooding younger, more able and more active blood that was at play.

Above all seniors prove their worth on the pitch. John Mensah did in remarkable fashion and so is Sulley Muntari doing on a regular basis. As for the juniors, there is something about respect that doesn’t make you weak or inferior. It just shows you have class. That above all you respect yourself. Because whatever the amount of success at club level, if team mates find a player too full of himself, cocky and arrogant around his international team mates, thriving will become a problem. Kevin-Prince Boateng is a prime example of that.

There seems to be real problems with the playing body with divisions all over. The suggestion that they were a united front, peddled with such effort seems to be an absolute facade and that should be the real worry ahead of the qualifiers in June.

Great teams have been built not based on individual talent but collective team effort. And the longer a team sticks together, the more likely it is to attain results. In that regard keeping this group together and allowing for the natural changes based on form and needs is important.

It is also the one compelling argument that goes for Goran Stevanovic as coach. Continuity works magic and if there is any reason to retain him, it will be on those grounds. Problem for the Serbian is that the atmosphere is so poisoned, it is difficult to see how he would succeed in it.

The story of black magic in his report will make it worse. He of course captured what he was told but it still won't stop the players from fuming with rage at the manner they have been ridiculed.

If he stays, and it is highly unlikely that he will for good reason, he will have a lot of bridges to build with a nation that has used the past one week to remind him that we demand the highest standards possible of men who pay with our tax payer's money at least when it comes to football.

If he goes, and it is likely he will whoever takes this job will not need to think as just a tactician but must be a unifying figure too, a master motivator and one with words who can reshape and restructure the thinking of his players and build a completely new team environment.

Because even if they won't admit it, the Black Stars set up is one fraught with many, many problems at the moment on the playing front.