As the incoming Portuguese manager Jose Peseiro joins the Super Eagles in the US for the international friendly against Mexico and Ecuador, stakeholders have challenged the Portuguese tactician to make the senior national team great again, TUNDE LIADI reports.
Since the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) confirmed the appointment of former Sporting Lisbon manager José Vitor dos Santos Peseiro as the Super Eagles’ head coach, many have been wondering what manner of the national team the country would have under the Portuguese tactician.
To be assisted by former Ajax winger Finidi George, Salisu Yusuf, Usman Abd’Allah and Ike Shorunmu, the NFF did not release details of Peseiro’s contract. Still, reports suggested that the Portuguese tactician has only been handed a one-year deal with an option for another year, subject to performance in the initial 12 months.
Only on Wednesday, Peseiro enthused about the prospect of managing the Super Eagles, adding: Pride! It is with great pride and joy that I am the coach of one of the greatest football nations in the world. Commanding the Super Eagles starts with knowing how to respect the history, value it and be inspired by its roots.”
Incidentally, only German Gernot Rohr spent over five years as the Super Eagles’ top man before being sacked in December as he finished as the longest-serving Super Eagles coach in history.
Rohr’s immediate temporary replacement, Augustine Eguavoen, only handled the Eagles for three months even as he jumped before being pushed for failing to secure qualification to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Aside from Rohr, only one Super Eagles head coach – the late Stephen Keshi – has spent two years or more in charge of the team in the last 12 years.
In the light of Peseiro’s rolling one-year contract, former Nigeria international Julius Aghahowa has implored the NFF to give the newly appointed Super Eagles coaches adequate time to whip the team into a formidable side as anything contrary could derail the progress of the national team.
He urged the NFF to give the Peseiro-led crew four or five years to implement their ideas and build a formidable Super Eagles.
Aghahowa believed that constantly changing coaches is detrimental to the success of the Super Eagles.
“The target should be to build a formidable team,” Aghahowa, the former Wigan striker reportedly said in an interview with a Lagos-based Sports radio station. “Although some people might have different opinions, I want to see long-term plans for this team to represent this country in many tournaments and you can’t do that by playing friendlies and after a few poor results, then they get kicked out. That’s not how to do it.
“You have to give the technical crew time. For example, maybe four or five years, then you know what to expect.
“Not like after one tournament or qualifiers and you kick the whole technical crew out when they don’t do well and bring in someone else. You aren’t going to progress that way.”
Yet former Super Eagles midfielder Mutiu Adepoju has lauded the decision to name a Technical Adviser for the country’s senior national team ahead of the race for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations starting next month even as he rallied the support of Nigerians for the newly assembled technical crew.
Adepoju praised the NFF for the swift appointment of the Eagles head coach and the former Real Madrid Castilla graduate exuded confidence that the ex-Venezuelan gaffer will succeed with the Eagles based on the calibre of domestic coaches attached to him.
“Knowing that qualifiers for the 2023 AFCON are around the corner, it is just normal for issues relating to the Super Eagles technical crew to be resolved,” Adepoju popularly dubbed the Head Master disclosed to NationSport. “We are glad that the team’s Technical Adviser has been made public; we can only expect the best.
“I am very sure that with the assistance of Finidi George, Ike Shorunmu, Salisu Yusuf and Usman Abd’Allah, everything will work well.
“I don’t have any other thing to say than being optimistic that we are going to get the best from Jose Peseiro,” he added.
The former Shooting Stars General Manager noted that it was important that Nigerians disregard the track record of the Portuguese and pray for his success with the Super Eagles.
Adepoju added that in spite of being the favourites to qualify from the Group A of the 2023 AFCON qualifiers which include Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Mauritius, the Eagles must take every game seriously to avoid another shocker just like the case with the Black Stars of Ghana who eliminated the team from the 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign.
“He may not be the popular choice but since he has been named, we just have to rally around him and pray that everything works well. What we want is for the team to perform well. It is what we should be hoping for,” he further said. “Without playing there is no how we can qualify. We should be able to qualify from that group but we cannot afford to take any team for granted.”
Meanwhile, former Benue Cement Company (BCC) Lions of Gboko defender, Bolaji Douglas explained that it was a wise decision for the NFF to opt for a foreign manager after the home groomed coaches led by Austin Eguavoen bungled the Super Eagles’ 2022 World Cup ticket.
He said the coaches that prosecuted the 2021 AFCON and the 2022 World Cup playoffs set themselves up by agreeing to tinker with the team irrespective of the lack of adequate preparations and as such, should take the blame for the team’s lack of success.
“On Jose Peseiro, to be honest with you, it is hard to really make a call here,” Douglas declared. “To start with, the local lads did not cover themselves in glory with the way they bungled the Qatar 2022 World Cup Play-off; regardless of the shenanigans surrounding the preparations.
“They allowed themselves to be set up as the fall guys and they now have to pay the price as they have ruled themselves out of contention.”
He reckoned that with the 2023 AFCON Qualifiers around the corner he would thumb up the NFF’s decision to sort out issues surrounding the technical crew of the Eagles before the first game with Sierra Leone next month.
He quipped: “Now I have my concerns with Jose, his records do not really say much, to begin with, and I am struggling to understand how he managed to hang around even when he was dragged around and almost rubbished by the way he was treated.
“Unless maybe he was aware of the game being played and had been told to relax the job will be his.
“But let me move away from the intrigues, at this point in time, he is the one the powers that appear to want, we kick off the AFCON qualifiers in a few weeks, hence the need to sort out the technical crew of the Super Eagles.”
Douglas nonetheless urged the NFF to avoid the last episode with former coach, Gernot Rohr and ensure that the contract terms with Peseiro are drawn up in such a way that it is flexible even for complex situations such as issues relating to review of performance and sack.
“I have no choice but to accept him as the new man in charge of the Super Eagles,” Douglas stressed.
“But I hope to God those responsible for drawing up the contracts would not sell us cheap again and put us in a situation where the man we employed cannot be fired because we found ourselves staring at the side of the gun that should be pointing the other way.
“I wish the man good luck, if he succeeds we all will be happy.”
However, Niger Tornadoes head coach, Abubakar Bala has challenged Peseiro to get down working immediately and ensuring the Eagles hit the ground running in the race for the 2023 AFCON with positive results against Sierra Leone and Mauritius.
Bala, a former coach of the Flying Eagles stated that the Portuguese can only succeed if he works with his assistant coaches.
The former Kwara United gaffer charged Peseiro to be humble and be ready to go through the work hand-in-hand with his lieutenants.
“NFF has done their bit to ensure there is no vacuum in the technical crew of the Super Eagles with the naming of Jose Peseiro as the head coach. The new coach does not have time to waste knowing that the team has two key AFCON qualifiers in June,” Bala explained.
“It is important for him to start on a good note and the fixtures with Sierra Leone and Mauritius can afford him that stability.
“It is germane he learns from his assistants and not ignore all their supportive admonitions.
“With the inability of the Eagles to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, all Nigerians’ attention will be on the AFCON Qualifiers.
“It is imperative for the Eagles to play well and not struggle at all in both games to gradually win back the trust of Nigerians.”
In the meantime, one-Green Eagles and Super Eagles handler, Adegboye Onigbinde berated the NFF for its quick-fix approach even as he wants the football house to seek permanent solutions.
Onigbinde pointed out that the appointment of a new foreign expatriate for the Eagles is only a temporary measure and that only when those administering the sport in Nigeria are ready to do the needful will football know peace.
“Should I be enthusiastic about the employment of Peseiro?” the octogenarian asked rhetorically. “Agreed some domestic coaches were unable to meet up with the set target, there were reasons for their failure that we are yet to address.
“We can only get temporary relief. It won’t be for a long while; we have always been beating about the bush but important issues such as the development of football at the grassroots and development of coaches, youth among other things, Onigbinde who led the Eagles to the 2002 Japan/Korea World Cup, asserted.
While Peseiro is expected to assume duties with the Super Eagles in the USA, the former Al Ahly coach has been enjoined to brace up for criticisms in the days ahead with Nigerians’ inordinate love for their football.
“Nigerians love bread,” a football writer, Rilwan Balogun, noted. “It’s one of the most consumed staples in the country. They love their football too.
“And it won’t be strange to see people seek some beautiful blend of systems to make a good brand of football. When the brand however doesn’t produce results, danger looms.
“Don’t try to satisfy Nigerian football fans. Only bread and money have that ability; there’ll always be critics and criticisms,” he counselled.