Essien World Cup threat, but Jose says:
IT'S NOT FAIR!
February 08, 2006
CHELSEA coach Jose Mourinho has hit back at Ghana boss Ratomir
Dujkovic for criticising midfielder Michael Essien after they
crashed out of the African Nations Cup in Egypt.
Essien returned to action in Chelsea's 2-0 win over Liverpool at
Stamford Bridge on Sunday after finally recovering from the ankle
ligament injury he collected in the 3-1 win over West Ham at the
start of the year.
The injury put paid to Essien's hopes of playing in the African
Nations Cup, but the former Lyon player was singled out for
criticism by Dujkovic after Ghana's exit in the group stages.
The Ghanaian coach even hinted that he might not select the Chelsea
midfielder for this summer's World Cup Finals in Germany after
appearing to question his commitment to the country.
But Mourinho said: 'He is proud of his country and a great patriot.
His injury from the West Ham game was a bad one.
'It has kept him out for a month and although it was a foul, the
player who committed it was not suspended. Essien has recovered
well.
'The comments from the manager of Ghana after his team had gone out
of the competition were not fair to a great player who was injured
and has been responsible for them going to the World Cup.'
Ghana failed to make it past the group stages of the African
Nations Cup.
After losing 1-0 to Nigeria in their opening game, they beat
Senegal but surprisingly went down to Zimbabwe in their crucial
last match.
Some fans have since called for Dujkovic to be sacked but Essien
urged them to be patient and promised to play in any friendlies
arranged prior to the World Cup Finals.
'I know the Ghanaians are frustrated, but he was the first ever
coach to guide Ghana to the World Cup Finals,' Essien said. 'There
were also three key players who were missing from the Cup of
Nations squad.'
However, former Black Stars player Mohammed Polo has asked the
Ghana Football Association to relieve the Serbian of his
position.
'The coach has lost his bearings and the best decision as we
prepare for the Germany World Cup is an outright dismissal to save
the nation from further humiliation,' he said.
'There was no game plan until we managed to score the face-saving
goal. And to add to that, he made the lone goal scorer in the
Senegal match, Matthew Amoah, waste on the bench, why?' Polo added
furiously.
Meanwhile, Dujkovic has told the BBC's Network Africa programme: 'I
have to accept criticism because this is part of the job. When we
win everyone says nice things about us but people are angry when we
lose.
'I am not worried, we coaches always have our luggage ready to
go.'
- Wire Services.