Former Ebusua Dwarfs coach Ernest Thompson has expressed his interest in leading Hearts of Oak as their next coach following the departure of Martinus Koopman due to disappointing results.
The Phobians find themselves coachless after parting ways with the Dutch trainer by mutual consent this week, a decision made in light of the team's underwhelming performance.
With Hearts of Oak actively seeking a new coach post-Koopman, contenders for the role reportedly include C.K Akonnor, Yaw Preko, Bashir Hayford, and a UK-based tactician.
In an interview with Kessben FM, Ernest Thompson who also coached AshantiGold in the past confidently positioned himself as one of the capable coaches in the local scene who could take charge of Hearts of Oak.
“There are a lot local coaches who can handle Hearts of Oak. The only challenge is that the kind of support and remunerations and all other things given to the expatriate by the clubs are not given to the local coaches and that’s the reason why they part ways with local coaches within a short time”
“If local coaches are given the same support or something closer as the expatriate, I think that would have been another good motivation for the local coaches to work to resolve payment compensation of fees to the foreign coaches but it seems we are not learning our lessons and we keep doing that and then teams are fined by CAF and FIFA to pay monies to these people much as they came and perform abysmally and that is the situation of Hearts of Oak now”
“You can’t eat your cake and have it. Hearts of Oak recently experienced the same thing with Slavko Matic and I think they are still owing that coach and it’s now, Koopman”
“We have to learn our lessons from that and then, have faith and trust in our local coaches and build them from what they have now and then you can help them with other courses to empower them the more. I think it will save the clubs from unnecessary spending. We have very competent coaches and I see myself as one of those coaches to handle Hearts of Oak and make it great it again” he said.