Optimism greeted the appointment of Emmanuel Amuneke as part of the Super Eagles technical crew ahead of the World Cup qualifiers playoff against Ghana in March.
Amuneke will serve as head coach to Austine Eguavoen who retains his role as interim technical adviser with Salisu Yusuf his first assistant dropping to the role of second assistant, while Paul Aigbogun was sacrificed in the new set up. Joseph Yobo will be the third assistant.
Looking at the career of Amuneke as coach is hard to mention any sustained success since leading Nigeria to the U17 World Cup glory in 2015. A tournament which Nigeria isn’t new to winning as they were champions even before his feat.
It means transiting the team to become U20 champions at world level. A feat that Nigeria has never achieved will be seen as his first step towards writing his name in the history books of Nigerian football as a coach.
A team loaded with talents like Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Nwakali, Samuel Chukwueze, Orji Okonkwo, Kingsley Michael among others surprisingly failed to make it to the Africa U20 World Cup. This result came despite their win away to Sudan.
They were simply no match for the Sudanese in Lagos who got the result they need to qualify for the tournament with a sqaud less in talent than that of Nigeria. Worthy to note is that the Nigerian team went on strike on the eve of the game in Lagos. A sign of how the technical crew didn’t stamp their authority on the young boys who needed guidance.
He made his first real foray into senior management when he was appointed as coach of Tanzania and despite qualifying them for their first Africa Cup of Nations in 39 years, he was dismissed a year to the end of his two years deal.
Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) took the decision after they fail to win any of their games at the AFCON but beyond the results at the tournament, the also cited the breakdown in relationship between the coach and senior members of the team.
The heat of it was when he dropped six senior players before the crucial AFCON qualifiers game against Uganda. In that game Uganda fielded a weakened team as they are already through as group winners. Till date many Tanzanians credit their next door neighbor Uganda for helping them break the duck of their absence at AFCON not Amuneke.
After the Tanzanian experience he went to Sudan and was celebrated as a high level appointment by Al Khartoum SC. A fine pre season raised the expectations of fans but in the league proper they gained just 11 points from eight matches in the Sudanese Premier League and he was subsequently fired.
He claimed he wasn’t sacked but the club in their statement said he was dismissed three months into his one year deal as results and relationship with some players wasn’t the best and it was affecting performance on the pitch.
Off he went to Egypt, where he is seen as a legend owing to his performance as a player for league giants Zamalek. He joined top division side El-Makkasa El-Makkasa after they ended the contract of Ahmed Hossam ‘Mido’.
Amuneke led El-Makkasa in three games in what was his shortest managerial tenure – against Smouha and Al Entag Al Harbi which both ended in 1-1 draws and then a 0-1 defeat to Tala’ea El Gaish in the Egyptian Cup. He was relieved off his role as first team coach. A little over three weeks to the date he was appointed.
Ehab Galal was announced as the new coach with Amuneke moved to the role of director of the club’s academies across Africa. However at that point they didn’t even have an academy in Egypt how much more in Africa.
Several Egyptian news outlet later reported that fallout with some senior players and backroom staff led to his early exit as first team coach as although he has an edge technically. His man management isn’t fit for senior players hence his deployment to their youth team. The youth team project never took off.
His appointment with Nigeria is his fourth sojourn into senior football and it is believed that he has learnt a thing or two about man management at a senior level as it was used against him in three different instance, when he attempted to make the step up from U17 glory to a level higher.
