Tag: Eagles’ coaches

THEY are back. Yes; they are. Our cantankerous coaches are back in the Super Eagles saddle. Is anyone surprised that the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration can embrace a coaching crew that was the world’s laughing stock in Brazil, where they spent the night before the game between Nigeria and France sharing their $3.85 million appearance fees?  It means the return of revolts by the Eagles in foreign land. We must prepare for a season coaches scolding their erstwhile employers with ignominy. I hope it doesn’t dovetail into beating up NFF men, now that they coaches take orders from the Presidency. Aren’t these coaches blessed?

What you need to have to coach the Eagles is to have friends at the Presidency, get the ears of the Senate President, shout loud enough for the Secretary to the Government to hear, call any governor of your choice and, of course, get the attention of the Sports Minister to ridicule your employers. These are not easy targets but when everyone calls you big, it doesn’t matter if your team has won one game out of 13. What counts for the coaches’ friends in high places is that they have broken records last achieved some donkey years ago. It doesn’t also matter if the mantra for coaches of being judged by their last matches runs against your recent achievements. Eagles’ coaches cannot be assessed by the team’s performances on the pitch because the NFF is perpetually enmeshed in crises. But our girls win trophies and play in the finals of the women World Cup. Will Nigerians sit up at night to watch the Falcons or Falconets like they do for the Eagles? I can hear those in government retort as they read this: Is that so?

Who cares if the Eagles are 42nd in the world or even ninth in Africa? The Eagles can be 100th in the world and rock the bottom among African teams. The coaches must stay. They are untouchable. After all, there is the unseen caveat by the government that no foreign coach should be appointed. So who is that Nigerian coach to dethrone our immutable ones? Those in high places have forgotten that these coaches took the job from others. Let them continue to peddle influence in the corridors of power. Our football will be the loser. I hope it won’t be too late. I digress!

I have watched in awe how these Eagles coaches have smuggled themselves back. But if these coaches have any self esteem, they ought to walk up to those influence peddlers at the corridors of power to politely reject the job. Would they do it? How can they? Where in the world would they secure such mouthful deal for their poor tactics? Indeed, the talk of having seven offers on the table is cheap. They dropped those deals because Nigeria has better players to sustain their mercantile tendencies for selling players to the European markets. That is the hidden truth; not patriotism; not the love of the game. No.

But my joy stems from the fact that they are not beating their chests to celebrate this unholy return. Nigerians are not fooled by this senseless decision which has left the NFF as the inferior partner in an agreement where it should be calling the shots. I don’t believe that President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the coaches’ return. If the President did, he ought to have directed that their contracts be sealed and payment made upfront if that is what they want.

I hope those at the Presidency understand the import of keeping quiet while this tale reigns in the minds of Nigerians. If the coaches succeed, which I doubt very much, the purported presidential fiat would have worked. However, if Congo beats Nigeria or secures a draw in Pointe Noire, then the masses would descend on the President, whose hands are full with the myriad of problems besetting the country. Those peddling this presidential directive don’t like President Jonathan. They need to speak up because nothing has changed since the coaches returned.

The team list for the two games against Congo and South Africa has Ikechukwu Uche as the only meaningful addition. Even at that, Uche still needs more than this game to blend with the others. I know that Uche will be pilloried if he fails to excel against the Congolese. But that is expected after being sidelined from the squad for two years. It means that the coaches don’t know the problem with the Eagles. I hope that the coaches know that the game will be played on synthetic turf, which gives the Congolese significant advantage. The argument of playing on artificial pitch is untenable because the Congolese beat us on a grassed pitch. Football hardly has anything to do with the playing surface, if the players are fit and know what to do. The coaches must give them the right tactics to run the opposition aground. But where we have half-fit and bench-warming players in the Eagles, only divine intervention can rescue them from imminent defeat in Pointe Noire.

The 25-man squad doesn’t represent our best in Europe for the months of September and October. It is despicable that Victor Moses is being dropped by the coaches because we are playing on artificial turfs. Shouldn’t they have asked Moses if he would want to play on such turfs? Moses is the most exciting Nigerian player in Europe today. He attracts rave previews and reviews in the Barclays English Premier League, including the backlash from Swansea’s Manager Monk for diving.

Is it not also ridiculous that Chinedu Obasi isn’t on the list? Obasi has been a jewel for Schalke 04 since Di Matteo joined the German Bundelsiga. Obasi has also been outstanding playing for Schalke 04 in the competitive UEFA Champions League. He has scored goals in this competition. Shouldn’t such a player make the Eagles list based on his club form? I really don’t know what the coaches have against Obafemi Martins’ inclusion on a list that has players who have been perpetual bench warmers in the Eagles in the last three years? Can anyone ask the coaches what crime Sunday Mba has committed? Why is Obasi excluded? As it is now, the NFF dare not ask these coaches? They take orders from the top.

Part of the problem with the Eagles rests with the arbitrary manner in which the list of invited players is drawn without recourse to certain basic ingredients, like we see in other countries. John Mikel Obi isn’t fit, with less than one week to the battle in Congo. In fact feelers from Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge grounds suggest that Mikel may not play until the next two weeks. Yet, our all-knowing coaches picked him for the two matches to be played within five days. Oguenyi Onazi isn’t also too fit. Ambrose Efe has lost his first team shirt at Celtic FC of Glasgow. Elderson Echijile scored a goal last weekend after a spell on the bench. Kenneth Omeruo hasn’t been able to tie down a regular shirt at Middleborough. We must thank God that Emmanuel Emenike has started scoring again. Only Ahmed Musa is a sure bet in terms of his current form. It is for this reason that our coaches ought to have invited Moses, Obasi, Martins and Anichebe. Even Kelechi Ihenanacho.

The Congolese would panic seeing all our big stars doing well in Europe in our line-up. It would give us the psychological advantage that such big players need to bury the hosts. The 25-man list doesn’t inspire me. It is good the coaches are told the truth so that they don’t return with tales of sabotage by some Nigerians. Again, the coaches are not complaining now that they cannot train the boys on synthetic pitches. I hope they don’t return with tales of the unexpected.

As for the game against Congo, it is my fervent wish that Nigeria wins. Victory will improve our FIFA ranking, except that it will make the coaches more powerful than they were until their reinstatement by the Presidency. It is only with the Eagles coaches that the employee is bigger than the employer. What that encourages is indiscipline. It also sets the coaches against their employers and Nigeria football is bound to suffer as either party strives to show its importance.

Already, the coaches have won the battle to recall Slyvanus Okpala, just as they have succeeded in reversing NFF’s decision to drop the team’s former media man and coordinator. Will this victory party for the coaches continue? I hope this trend doesn’t dovetail into the situation where the coaches would wake up one day to say that the NFF board should be sacked?

Now that NFF men have become Lilliputians before the coaches, who then will pay the cash they will demand if we eventually qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations? Or will the coaches’ friends in high places provide the cash? Time will tell.