Former Ghana coach C.K Akonnor has dispelled popular assertions that the Blacks Stars job came too early for him as a coach.

According to the former Kotoko, Hearts gaffer, he was primed and very suited for the job but admits that it just did not work.

48-year-old C.K  Akonnor was made a substantive coach of the team he once captained after first being appointed as an assistant coach to Kwesi Appiah.

After Appiah was sacked after the AFCON 2019 tournament in Egypt he was appointed in January 2020 but took charge of only ten matches mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Black Stars coach, Akonnor was in charge of ten matches winning four, losing four, and drawing two before he was sacked in September 2021 four months before the 2021 AFCON tournament after a 1-0 defeat to South Africa in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers match in Johannesburg.

“No, [ I didn’t take the job too early]. I don’t think it was early, what I needed was encouragement and I didn’t get it,” he told JoySports’ Muftawu Nabila Abdulai.

“When you look at the atmosphere that I worked, it was a tough one. It got to a time I didn’t know who to trust, or who to speak to.

“I was in the middle of too many things which made it difficult for me, very difficult,” he emphasised.

“I had been an assistant, U-17, Frimpong Manso, I had been an assistant, Orlando [Wellington], U-20, I was assistant, Black Stars. I have coached Eleven Wise, Right to Dream Academy which is now the biggest Academy in West Africa, Hearts of Oak, big team; Kotoko, AshGold, and I am getting close to 50 [years old] and you say it was early for me?

“You want me to be 70 or 80 years old before I manage the team? It didn’t work as it ought to doesn’t mean it was too early for me,” he said.

He guided the Black Stars to qualify for the 2021 African Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon and was present at the draw but was sacked before the tournament.

Serbian trainer Milovan Rajevac was his replacement but was sacked after the 2021 AFCON tournament in Cameroon after a string of poor results.