In defense of Carlos Queiroz abandoning his underperforming squad for 60 days

BY: @op_ed_sportsSEP 03, 2026

FIG. 01 Carlos Queiroz gestures animatedly with a clipboard at a podium in the empty Ghana team locker room as a lone player holds a water bottle and a groundskeeper sweeps the floor.

The modern athlete is too coddled to appreciate a manager who abandons them in their time of need. Queiroz’s triumphant return to the Ghana national team proves that the best way to build a winning culture is to simply refuse to participate in it.

We live in an era of the deeply unserious athlete. You walk into the locker room today and what do you see? Ring lights. Massage guns. Players discussing their personal brands, their mental health, and their feelings about the tactical setup. The inmates are running the asylum, and the men in the tailored suits are too terrified of a bad tweet to do anything about it.

That is why I, for one, stood up and applauded when I heard the news out of Accra this morning.

Carlos Queiroz is back as the manager of the Ghana men’s national team. He returns to the exact same desk, in the exact same office, with the exact same squad of underperforming prima donnas he walked away from just eight weeks ago. Following a disastrous World Cup exit, Queiroz didn’t hold a postgame presser to apologize to the nation. He didn’t promise to rebuild. He simply packed his bags, turned off his phone, and left the country to let his players rot in the mess they created.

Two months later, the federation begged him to come back. And he said yes.

This is a statement win for management. It is a victory for adults everywhere. For too long, we have allowed the narrative to be dictated by 23-year-olds who think a stepover is a substitute for character. Queiroz looked at a broken system fit, realized the players were beyond saving through conventional coaching, and deployed the ultimate tactical adjustment: total, uncommunicated abandonment.

FIG. 02 The Ghana Football Association preserved Queiroz's office exactly as he left it, recognizing that any attempt to replace him would require actual administrative work.

We spent millions on a global search firm, interviewed thirty candidates, and ultimately realized that Carlos was the only man alive who didn't need us to validate his parking.

Kwesi Appiah-Mensah, Director of Redundant Synergies at the Ghana Football Association

I was having a $300 ribeye with a senior FIFA executive in Zurich last week, and we were lamenting the death of the old-school disciplinarian. Back in my day, a manager didn't need to fake his own professional death to get the squad’s attention. He just threw a heavy object at your head, told you your family was embarrassed by your work rate, and that was that. You laced up your boots and you ran through a brick wall for the man.

But you can't teach that kind of fear anymore. The human resources departments have ruined the beautiful game. So Queiroz adapted. He evolved. He realized that the only way to inflict genuine psychological distress on a modern squad is to ghost them.

For 60 days, the Ghana squad had no adult supervision. They had to organize their own warm-ups. They had to figure out what time the team bus was leaving. They were forced to look inward, and what they saw terrified them.

When you look at the film from the World Cup, the problem wasn’t the formation. The problem was the intangibles. The squad lacked the sheer, existential dread of knowing their leader despised them enough to leave them stranded in a Qatari hotel lobby. By stepping down, Queiroz installed that dread permanently.

FIG. 03 Queiroz addresses the media upon his return, bravely refusing to explain where he has been or what he was doing.

The gaffer walked back into the dressing room yesterday, looked at the tactical board, and asked who had touched his dry-erase markers while he was pretending to live in Portugal.

Declan Mensah, Head of Locker Room Vibes and Apologies

The analytics nerds and the laptop bloggers are, predictably, furious. They look at this situation and whine about "stability" and "long-term project development." They claim that you cannot build a cohesive tactical identity if the manager is liable to quit in a huff every time a fullback misses a defensive rotation.

These people have never played the game at a high level. They don't understand the eye test. You look at Queiroz standing on the touchline now, and he looks like a man who knows exactly how much power he holds. He doesn't just have a contract; he has leverage. He has proven that the federation needs him more than he needs them, which is the only dynamic that has ever won a trophy in the history of competitive sport.

Let’s talk about the broader implications for the sport, because this isn't just about Ghana. This is a blueprint for every front office in the world.

We hear endlessly about "load management" for the players. We are told that the modern athlete simply cannot be expected to play a full ninety minutes twice a week without their hamstrings turning to dust. The medical staffs wrap them in bubble wrap, monitor their sleep cycles, and mandate rest days.

FIG. 04 Players were forced to experience the terrifying void of self-direction during the manager's tactical absence.

But what about the manager's load? What about the emotional toll of watching a millionaire center-back pass the ball directly to the opposing striker? Queiroz has pioneered load management for the coaching staff. Taking a two-month sabbatical in the middle of a competitive cycle to sit on a beach and drink espresso while the national media tears the squad to shreds is simply smart sports science. It preserves his ceiling for the crucial qualifying matches ahead.

Furthermore, this completely bypasses the traditional hiring cycle. International football doesn't have a salary cap, but it does have an emotional cap, and the players were eating up all of it. By forcing the GFA to conduct a grueling, humiliating two-month managerial search that yielded zero viable alternatives, Queiroz proved that his value on the open market is absolute.

We spent eight weeks learning how to self-actualise and play out from the back, but honestly, it is a tremendous relief to have someone screaming at us again.

Marcus Osei, Vice-Captain of Unearned Confidence

Ask any real fan, and they will tell you the truth: they don't want a manager who is "committed to the project." They want a mercenary who holds the entire institution in mild contempt. They want a man who views his employment as a conditional favor.

Queiroz has set a new standard. I fully expect the best managers in the world to start resigning on Friday afternoons just to see if their boards have the stomach to rehire them by Monday morning. It builds character. It establishes dominance. And most importantly, it reminds the players exactly who is replaceable, and who gets to dictate terms.

Welcome back, Carlos. The game missed your complete lack of basic professional courtesy.

SATIRE OF

BBC Sport · bbc.co.uk

Queiroz returns as Ghana manager two months after stepping down

Carlos Queiroz is reappointed as head coach of Ghana's men's national team, two months after he appeared to step down following their exit from the World Cup.

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