Immediate past Acting General Manager of Hearts of Oak, Bernard Nana Adu Gyebi says they were not proactive when five of their players were handed call-ups to the just-ended 2022 African Nations Championship [CHAN] tournament in Algeria.
According to him, the club’s struggles were due to the absence of Gladson Awako, Konadu Yiadom, Denis Korsah, Seidu Suraj and Daniel Afriyie who earned a place in the team.
Hearts of Oak were ousted from the MTN FA Cup by Dreams FC. They are currently in 6th position on the Premier League standings having won just one of their last five games.
Nana Gyebi admits that their failure to plan on how to replace the players that earned a place in the Black Galaxies coupled with injuries accounts for their erratic performances.
"I must admit that I was part of the problem. When our players earned call-ups to play at the 2022 CHAN tournament, we should have been strategic in terms of the players we will allow them to join the national team and their replacements but we were not quick on that."
"We all make mistakes and I think we could have looked deep into that. It could be that the club was thinking so much.
"It is also an oversight that injuries can worry us as well. The team was badly affected by injuries which affected our consistent performance. The players are also recovering from injuries so hopefully, I am sure the team will get better," Gyebi added.
Hearts of Oak will hoping to return to winning ways when they host Berekum Chelsea on Saturday in the matchday 17 games at the Accra Sports Stadium.