Kenichi Yatsuhashi is no fool!
The writing had long been on the wall that the Americo-Japanese coach of Accra Hearts of Oak would not last the season with the Phobians, once the attempt was made by the club’s management to sack him from the job.
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Therefore, for us, it was just a matter of time for the chicken to come home to roost and so we are not in the least surprised at the eventuality.
Whether or not the two parties decided to part ways by mutual consent is neither here nor there.
And the public cannot be deceived by the statement from the Hearts management that the board of directors of the club only accepted the termination of Kenichi’s contract based on the mutual option tabled by the coach.
Of course, Kenichi was only being smarter when it was common knowledge that the management had prepared to fire him when the first round of the league ended, but for some divine intervention.
Therefore, he would only be a fool to be deluding himself that all was well and, like any professional or smart coach, he definitely had to jump before he was pushed.
Indeed, Kenichi needed no telling that he was an endangered species in Hearts. After all, if he didn’t have ears, he had eyes to see the goings-on around him.
The recent hiring of a Portuguese coach, supposedly for the youth side of Hearts, who reportedly would be on a higher salary than the coach of the senior team (Kenichi) must be revealing of the latest plot to oust him.
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Frankly, Kenichi has demonstrated that he is no fool to sit down and be overtaken by events, which is why he played it smart by that excuse that he should be given some 25 days to attend some course in India or wherever.
And, for us, it isn’t that the Hearts management was gullible in believing Kenichi’s request but that they saw it as a chance to drive the nail in the coffin.
Indeed, Kenichi may have been a pain in the neck for the Strategic Committee of Hearts (the management) and the board, but the decision to allow him to leave the club (mutual or not) around this time appears non-strategic, we dare say.
For us, the coach should have been tolerated to complete the league season, having moved Hearts to a top-four position from the relegation struggle that they went through around this time last season.
That he had been disrespectful to the management was a behaviour we would not hesitate to condemn, but in most destinations of modern football where coaches are hired and fired with careless abandon, performance has been the rule rather than the exception.