I cautiously jumped with joy when finally, Nigeria’s soccer governing body, the NFF announced that Shaibu Amodu was demoted to the home based Eagles, and that a foreign technical adviser was going to be hired to take the Super Eagles to South Africa for the world cup.
I said cautiously because, in Nigeria, we take everything for granted. And i would say that once again, the NFF has let us down.
I was one of the many Nigerians that never like Amodu. The man just does not have what it takes to coach a top class team that the Super Eagles can be. He does not read the trend in a match, technically and tactically, the man isn’t there. Well, enough of him.
The question of Amodu’s successor has no doubt generated a lot of debate. Like it or not, Super Eagles is many Nigerians’ favorite team.
First the NFF came up with a list of so-called world class coaches including Louis Van Gaal, Guus Hiddink and Peter Taylor. Later, they came up with the likes of Giovanni Trapatoni, John Barnes, and the list got longer by the day. And while they busy writing names, Guus Hiddink and some others claimed they had not even been contacted officially. Needless to say that Hiddink had since signed for Turkey.
I asked myself severally, why would the NFF publish names of these high profile managers without first asking them if they would like the chance to coach Nigeria. It looked more to me like a failed exercise in publicity than a honest attempt to get our darling team the right manager.
My personal opinion in this issue is this, getting a foreign technical adviser is a good thing, but so close to the world cup, and searching for a good is the wrong thing to do. He has to settle down and get to know the players, drop the players he does not want and then bringing in the ones who will do battle for him is no mean feat, that in a country like Nigeria.
Getting a Foreign TA after the world cup, but giving the team to Samson Siasia for the world cup would have been the right thing to do. Siasia would then work with the TA as an assistant after the world cup.
It will be very painful if Nigeria don’t do well in the mundial on account of all of these distractions.
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