I just came across a statement by Austrian Coach Hickersberger which I recommend should be adopted by all football coaches who mean to stay long in the business. He says and I quote "Every coach has to cope with at least 10,000 assistant coaches in the stands and even more in front of the telly. If you don't get the result, you are under fire. But I have been in the business for 40 years so I don't care about criticism any more only about qualified statements" end of quote.

I am sure if the numerous foreign coaches who have deserted the Black Stars in midstream had imbibed the philosophy of this Austrian coach they might have been still around to handle the team. Ishmael Kurtz,Buthkhard Ziese, Mariano Barreto, Duijkovic, Claude Le Roy you name them. They all left complaining about undue harassment especially from the media. The advice is that you must only worry about qualified statements in other words from those who actually understand the nuances of the game.

The most pathetic departure was that of Mariano Barreto. The Portuguese had led the Black Stars to beat Cape Verde in a 2006 World Cup qualifier at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi but the fastidious media put him on the carpet for not getting a basket full of goals This was too much for him and he took the next available plane and flew home.

French man Claude Le Roy who had won the confidence of the Ghana Football Association to take the Black Stars to the 2010 World Cup chickened out at the last moment because of media pressure.

It is quite healthy that acting national coach Sellas Tetteh does not appear ruffled by media pressure and his first major assignment gave him a resounding victory over a determined Libyan national team. The 3-0 drubbing of Libya by the Black Stars in Kumasi on June 1st splendid by all standards but there is more beyond.

For the next three weeks it is going to be action all the way with three matches in a row. On June 8th the Black Stars face Lesotho in Bloemfontein, then against Gabon in Libreville on June 15 before returning home to meet Gabon in a return match in Accra on June 22nd.

With almost unanimous backing from the media for Coach Sellas Tetteh's excellent debut he should feel confident enough to deliver the goods.

However if all fails he can take consolation in the creed by Austrian Coach Hickersberger and ride on.