Kotoko Were Impatient with Me- Zdravko Lugarusic

Former Asante Kotoko coach, Zdravko Lugarusic, has lamented the decision of the club’s management to show him the exit after less than five months into the job.

 The Croatian tactician was sacked as coach of the Porcupine Warriors following an inconsistent start to the season.

The 55-year-old, who is now head coach of Sudanese national team, expressed his disappointment over the club’s decision to sack him, claiming that they were impatient with him. He made the disclosure during an interview with GTV’s Benjamin Willie Graham at the ongoing CHAN tournament in Morocco.

“I came without proper pre-season, all the players they signed had just started training. If you [didn’t] get proper pre-season, five, six or seven weeks, then you can’t play proper football because you [won’t] get power, you [won’t] get strength and stamina to play. You have to play the type of football that suits the team and the players,” said Logarusic.

“We didn’t play nothing attractive after 10 weeks [but] I was one point behind the leader and second position when I was fired. We still had lot of time for improvement. We were not far from the leader but there wasn’t much patience…I lost two games – one against Medeama and against Hearts of Oak with a dubious penalty. I came home, I lost points through dubious penalty [and] they jumped on me…”

The coach stressed that, there was no need for panic. “Sometimes you lose but when you are on the right track, with only three months together, in good position, [there’s] no reason to panic, but they decided to change. I have to follow their decision…They hired me, they fired me” he said.

Kotoko slipped deeper into the pit of poor performance after sacking Zdravko Logarusic, forcing him to ask his interviewer, rhetorically, if the team did anything significant in the league after his dismissal.

“The point is, what is the success they made after me? Is it something spectacular? It’s nice but I think we needed a bit more time to stabilise everything and get good fundamentals for the next season…”

Logarusic didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to Ghana.