The most circulated news after the senior national team of Nigeria friendly games against Ghana and Mali respectively has been the fallout between the head coach Finidi George and some players of the team, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Finidi drew the ire of some players of the team who he left on the bench for the entire duration of both games, and even the team’s AFCON star Ademola Lookman was unhappy that he got sparse game time in both games.
Lookman approached Finidi after the game to voice his unhappiness, but he wasn’t the only one as three other players refused to shake the hand of the coach over what they term disrespectful treatment because he didn’t offer any explanation on why they didn’t get to play.
In the wake of the fallout which has dimmed the chances of the coach of Enyimba getting the job on a permanent basis, an assistant of erstwhile coach Jose Peseiro has lifted the lid on how they managed fallout with some players during their time at the helm.
” I saw the report on the fallout and it’s very normal. We had a couple as well but we had to be smart about it especially in the build up to the AFCON”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
” There was a situation with Victor Osimhen before the AFCON, Ademola Lookman in the second game and William Troost-Ekong just before the AFCON. I can remember Kelechi Iheanacho also had some sort of disagreement with the coach. Even Terem Moffi but it’s all was in good faith and for the good of team”.
The assistant who shares a very good relationship with us was asked on if there was an issue at any point in time with Real Sociedad striker Sadiq Umar, who is a target of some section of the media.
” Never before did he act in a negative way. He is a team player and a very good guy. When he got injured before he AFCON the coach kept in touch with him because we really had him in our plans. It’s untrue, wicked and malicious to say he got into the team because of influence from the NFF. He is Peseiro’s kind of player and he plays in a top team in a top league*, he rounded up saying.
