Hearts must recognize club’s legends – Amankwa Mireku

Former skipper of Hearts of Oak, Amankwah Mireku, is unhappy at the constant ignorance and lack of recognition for the clubs’ legends in major functions of the club.

According to him, the club’s rich history was chalked by legends who won continental trophies for the club in the early 2000s, adding that, “these are players that should be closer to the team and offer their technical expertise to the playing body.”

Speaking to the Times Sports, he said the presence of the legends around the team will somehow motivate the players to put in their best in matches.

The issue of ignoring retired and successful players and lack of recognition for them have been called into question after a section of them felt overlooked in recent events of the club.

But Mireku, who captained the team to win the CAF Confederation Cup tournament in 2004, believes this have come about because of the lack of a clear definition of which players should be considered as club legends.

In his view, if these are sorted, it will make things easier for the club to involve the legends who put up their best to put the club at its current pedestal.

“For instance, Hearts legends struggle at the gates of the stadium just to watch the team’s matches. It can be quite embarrassing sometimes.”

He said “It gets so bad if we the legends of this club are not invited to club projects. Whatever the club is today is because of the efforts we have put in and one expects the management to be proud of us.”

Commenting on the club’s qualification to Africa this season after winning the FA Cup, Mr Mireku, charged the players to sustain the winning mentality to bring back the glory days.

He said even if they can’t win the tournament, they can give a good account of themselves by getting to the league stage of the competition.

“In our time we made two appearances but without success. We made the mark on the third try. It was a beautiful occasion to behold and I believe the current team, with hard work and dedication, can achieve a similar feat.

He commended the club for achieving the milestone after missing out in the Top 4 of the Ghana Premier League (GPL).

BY EMMANUEL ASANTE