Former Black Stars coach James Kwesi Appiah has revealed to Starr Sports his main ambition was to groom players for the senior national team for the next 10 to 15 years.

The calm tactician was appointed in 2012 after a thorough study of head coach Goran Stevanovic as an assistant coach.

Appiah’s reign saw Ghana to a fourth place finish at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa in 2013 and became the first indigenous coach to qualify the Black Stars to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The former Kotoko defender gave opportunities to some current youngsters in the Black Stars namely Christian Atsu, Jeffery Schlupp, Mubarak Wakaso, Solomon Asante, Baba Abdul Rahman and Rabiu Mohammed at a time when they were not considered for call ups and believes this explains his vision.

“My ambition was to build a team that the nation will depend on for the next 10-15 years and if you recollect I was being criticized for not having a regular team because my team had new faces.

“It was good to invite new faces to build competition in the team so you don’t solely depend on some players. These dependents later bluff the country when they decide they won’t play again you see the whole country crying,” he told Starr Sports.

“So many of these players form the core of the team and it wasn’t about Kwesi Appiah but rather Ghana as a whole,” the 55-year-old Khartoum Al Watani coach said.