I have said it many times that football coaches (call them managers if you like) are real gamblers and the experts are agreed that the nature of their work demands that you take risks. If you are lucky enough, you go through but when your luck runs out you fall down like a pack of cards

The pressure to succeed is usually on managers of the so called top clubs who by their known standards should always have some silverware to show to their supporters who are used to good times.

My favourite manager Alex Ferguson of Manchester United is a very good example of an adept gambler. No pun intended here but Sir Alex being a horse owner cannot be anything else but a gambler. His inclination to take risks has helped him on several occasions and his ability to spot young talents and guide them to be celebrities is legendary. The United manager is too good for his own good and his eyes on the quintuplet trophies in the season is something his opponents would definitely plot against.

It is good he has realised quite timely that he would have to sacrifice the FA Cup for the Premiership and the Champions League. After that historic away win over Porto, Rooney and Ronaldo definitely needed a rest for the impending crunch Champions’ league semi finals against old foes Arsenal and that explains the parade of teenagers for the FA cup semi against Everton yesterday. The young boys had a wonderful exposure at Wembley and it should toughen them for future high profile assignments.

Ghanaian born Welbeck was unlucky to be denied a penalty award for that cynical tackle on him but the way Everton goalie Tim Howard shone in the penalty shoot-out, gives me a funny feeling that he would have saved the kick.

We have a popular saying in Ghana that loosely translated means “if you try to see the inside of a bottle with both eyes you end up seeing only the outside of it”.

So I pat Alex Ferguson on the back for wisely deploying his troops to meet the demands of the occasion. You need to be crafty to be able to gamble successfully. The next weeks promise to produce exciting results and I am looking forward to see who will win the toss to be in blue in the English FA cup final between Chelsea and Everton.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.