The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has taken a bold decision to beef up the Black Stars technical bench with the introduction of Coach Sam Arday as part of efforts to excel at the Gabon 2017 Africa Nations Cup slated for January 14 to February 5.

The nomination of the ‘Multi-System Man’ was a fallout of a critical meeting between the Black Stars Management Committee and Coach Avram Grant held in Accra last Monday.

Coach Arday, who is currently the chairman of the GFA Technical Committee, was considered a qualified candidate for that important position due to his wealth of experience as a veteran coach and has been part of the technical set-up of the Stars’ three previous World Cup campaigns in Germany, South Africa and Brazil.

According to Graphic Sports investigations revealed that Coach Arday, also a technical director of Sogakope-based West Africa Football Academy (WAFA), was suggested by members for the role of a technical advisor for the team and the management committee.

The new arrangement will also see three young Ghanaian coaches being appointed as scouts to monitor Ghana’s opponents and furnish Coach Grant with report during the tournament.

Grant, who is said to have agreed with the proposal, will also bring on board physical instructor, Jamie Lawrence, and coach-cum-video analyst, Gerard Nus, as his aides during the tournament.

According to a grapevine source, the committee acknowledged the roles played by Nus and Lawrence during the last AFCON campaign in Equatorial Guinea and the recent FIFA World Cup qualifier against the Pharaohs of Egypyt in Alexandria respectively.

The source said the committee lamented the Stars’ poor form in their last five games and stressed on the need to beef up the bench to reverse the trend in Gabon.

Source: GraphicOnline