Bashiru Hayford's legendary temper is back.

The AshGold has, this time, signaled his intent to dish a spanking to some sports journalists in Kumasi should they persist with what he feels is unprofessional conduct.

The gaffer's ire has been stoked by a pressman in Kumasi who openly requested his sacking from the club. 

"A sports journalist told [AshGold CEO] Cudjoe Fianoo to sack me because I'm not doing well in the second round of the league and [Fianoo] replied that if I were [the pressman's] father, would he have wanted me sacked?"

Bash described such acts by press people as unprofessional and advised journalists to emulate the western media. And then, he issued a threat.

“Majority of the sports journalists in the country don’t respect at all. Some of us were given good training at home [and] hence can’t respond with insults. 

"So for me when you do that, I will catch in a corner and beat you," Bashiru Hayford told Metro FM in Kumasi.

“I won’t beat such journalists in the stadium, but outside where the Police would arrest us for fighting. I am saying all these things with a bitter heart because some people don’t feel it when insulting someone who is older than they are."

Bash is notoriously short-tempered and has regularly had spats with journalists during his career in the top flight. But his coaching is widely respected.

AshGold drew Inter Allies 1-1 on Wednesday and while the press waited in the media area for the mandatory post-match briefing, the coach skipped.

A week of friction

There seems to be no love lost between journalists and coaches this week, following Kotoko coach David Duncan’s post-match show on Wednesday which featured sarcastic replies throughout.

Every question thrown by journalists was met with monosyllabic answers, which left the pressmen nunplussed. 

"If I talk you [media] people will say I’m talking too much and I have decided to answer your questions in brief you are still complaining that I’m not talking. So what do you want me to do now?" an exasperated Duncan had said.   

On his part, Hayford asked for respect of the way managers work.

"Coaches depend on analysis of pundits, but we don’t have sports analysts in the country. They just put that name on them.

"The true analysts are able to tell you that coach in the first half your team committed this number of infringements and the opponent was attacking mostly from the left or right. 

"The ones we have in the country are those who go round insulting people on radio."

If history is anything to go by, there will be an equally hot response from certain quarters of the media in Kumasi.

-