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Ex-Hearts defender Amankwah Mireku has branded the current crop of players as sub-standard. The Phobians recruited a number of players including Seth Owusu, Richard Addai and Emmanuel Ansong among others during the off-season. The capital-based club have struggled to make a meaningful impact in the top-flight this season where three successive defeats have left them to hover around the relegation zone. Head coach CK Akunnor was made to pay the heavy price after he was sacked on Wednesday following incessant pressure from the club�s teeming and demanding supporters. But Amankwah, who enjoyed a terrific ten-year spell with the club says the players are second-rate and lack the quality to contribute significantly to the team�s success. �Hearts need players who are tough in the mind and in the heart. Some of them are simply not talented. Some are not ready for Hearts of Oak,� Amankwah told Radio XYZ �I am not saying those of us who had the opportunity of playing for the club are the best ever. �They need players who are ready to fight and face battle, That�s the kind of players the supporters need. �Unlike Kotoko supporters who wuld be patient for the side, Hearts supporters are not like that. �Hearts supporters don�t have time. They don�t have time at all. They will become angry when things are not going well. �That�s your job, do it and do it well. That�s Hearts of Oak supporters. That�s who they are and what the stand for.� Mireku was an integral member of the Hearts squad that conquered Africa in 2000.