‘Go back to the drawing board’ – Polo urges Black Stars to find solutions

Former Black Stars player Mohammed Polo has slammed demands from fans and stakeholders for Ghana to withdraw from the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, describing it as “senseless.”

Ghana currently sit bottom of Group C without a point following a disastrous start to their qualifying campaign with a 2–0 opening defeat away to Côte d’Ivoire followed by a humiliating 4–2 loss to Gambia in Accra.

The back-to-back defeats prompted the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and former head coach Carlos Queiroz to mutually part ways earlier this month, whilst sparking widespread frustration among fans, with some advocating for a complete withdrawal from the tournament scheduled to be hosted across East Africa.

However, Polo who won the AFCON with Ghana in 1978, believes it’s high time the Black Stars re-evaluated their approach and address their current technical shortcomings.

“I don’t think [withdrawing from the qualifiers] is the right thing to do. No, that is not the right thing,” he told CitiSports.

“You’ve been beating some people before. They went back to the drawing board and found solutions. So, if they are now coming to beat you, you should go back to the drawing board and find solutions.

“And the solution is within us. We have to find the solution within us. The quality of our players today is different from that of two years ago. It’s different.”

Polo further highlighted the need for deliberate coaching to elevate the current squad’s standard, rather than taking radical steps to abandon the tournament.

“We need a technical coach who can help them and add some value to what they have.You need coaches who can add value, who can add something to what the players have. Now, when the players come, they don’t add anything, so it is only what the players already know that they are playing,” he added.

“But withdrawing from the competition is senseless. It doesn’t make sense.”

With two consecutive losses, Ghana must win against Somalia in November or face the real danger of missing out on another AFCON.