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The management of Kumasi Asante Kotoko are sweating to raise funds to pay the severance package for their coach, Mas-Ud Dramani, and also secure the services of his successor, with the club set to cough up about GH¢54,000 to settle Dramani who was ordered last month to proceed on a 120-day accumulated leave.

Information available to the Graphic Sports indicates that Dramani, who led Kotoko to back-to-back Premier League titles, including the MTN FA Cup last season, has all but resigned to his fate and is currently negotiating an amicable settlement with his employers which could see the coach pocket not less than GH¢54,000 as payment of the remaining six months on his current contract.

The Public Relations Manager of Kotoko, Kwaku Ahenkorang, confirmed to the paper yesterday that negotiations were already underway between Kotoko and Dramani through his lawyer, after the coach wrote to the club to accept the order to proceed on leave and seek an amicable settlement.

The paper understood that Dramani, who led the Black Maidens to win bronze at the 2013 FIFA Under-17 Women’s Championship in Azerbaijan, earned about GH¢9,000 a month at Kotoko and would be smiling all the way to the bank as Kotoko have agreed in principle to settle his severance package.

Dramani’s letter accepting his fate, therefore, opens the door for Kotoko to proceed with negotiations with former Accra Hearts of Oak coach, David Duncan, who had confirmed to the Graphic Sports he was in talks with the Porcupine Warriors but first wanted a resolution of the Dramani issue to clear the path for a possible move to Kumasi.

Duncan, who was relieved of his job at Hearts in 2013 and engaged in a legal tussle with the Phobians until the GFA Ethics Committee ordered the club to pay him GH¢85,000 in accumulated salary, joined Accra Great Olympics but abandoned his former club just a week to the commencement of this season’s First Capital Plus Premier League.