Former Nsoatreman general manager warns Ghana champions Gold Stars about perils of continental football

Former Nsoatreman FC general manager Eric Alagidede has sounded a word of caution to newly crowned Ghana Premier League champions Bibiani Gold Stars ahead of their first continental campaign.

Alagidede led the now defunct Ghana Premier League club to win the 2023/24 MTN FA Cup – a feat that took them to the CAF Confederation Cup.

The Nsoatre-based club, under the technical guidance of coach Yaw Preko, were eliminated by Algerian team CS Constantine losing 2-0 in the first leg at Accra Sports Stadium and 1-0 in the return match in Algiers in the second qualifying stage.

With Gold Stars set to make their CAF Champions League debut next season, Alagidede has urged the club to invest heavily in player recruitment if they want to make an impact.

“If I have to advise Bibiani Gold Stars, if they want to go to the money zone, they should start looking for players who have experience in the other Premier League clubs or probably outside Africa. I know they are a company team, they have the financial muscle and the company can back them,” Alagidede told Radio Gold.

“But if they don’t have the intention of going far then they can use what they have because playing in Africa, if you don’t have in-depth squad, it means you have to sign good players up to forty.”

“Because by the time you return from one trip, the players will not recover to play the next league game. We [Nsoatreman] went to Algeria, and when we were coming we did a layoff at Istanbul for thirteen hours, that was the arrangement we had. And anybody who knows the Istanbul airport very well, there is no resting place. The players were lying on the floor for thirteen hours before they came back to Ghana.”

“We arrived on Monday and on Friday we had to play Accra Lions. I did not participate in the game but when I returned it took me four days to recover so you can imagine the players,” Alagidede added.

Gold Stars claimed their first ever Premier League title in the last day fixture of the 2024/25 season after whitewashing Accra Lions by 4-0 at the Duns Park. They secured 63 points – three better than the troubled Nations FC who walked out of their Week 33 encounter at Basake Holy Stars over refereeing decisions.