The hierarchy of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will announce a new permanent coach for the senior national team of Nigeria next month following the departure of Jose Peseiro upon the expiration of his contract last month, OwngoalNigeria.com reports.
Super Eagles played two international friendly games during the break beating Ghana 2-1 before succumbing to a 0-2 defeat to Mali in the second friendly game. Peseiro’s assistant Finidi George handled both games in interim capacity.
Finidi is one of the contenders for the job on a permanent deal, but he hasn’t done himself any favours with reports of how he handled his player’s selection and management.
The Enyimba FC of Aba coach only used two substitutes in the loss to Mali and of the 23 players invited for both games, six of them in Nathan Tella, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Alhassan Yusuf, Sadiq Umar, Olorunleke Ojo and Francis Uzoho didn’t get to play any minute in both games.
His decision made Ademola Lookman to question why he got few minutes in both games, despite his performance at the Africa Cup of Nations, where he was the top scorer for the Nigerian team with four goals.
” Any Super Eagles coach must be a good man manager because of the ego of most players in the team. It was that area that Peseiro struggled it but later understood it hence his bond with Ahmed Musa at the AFCON”, a board member of the NFF revealed.
” In the last two games of the Super Eagles. We had too many disgruntled voices on how the team selection was made and also man management. It’s a friendly game and we are supposed to see new players stake a claim for a spot particularly the last window before the world cup qualifiers resumes.
” All we saw was the same players we have known and not like we won both games. So the idea of playing the games was lost and nothing came out of the decision of the coach. He didn’t do his chances any good and the fear is that there could be more clashes in the future if he stays in the job permanently. Something we experienced during the time of Sunday Oliseh”, he rounded up saying.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
