The plans to engage Tom Saintfeit as the new coach of the senior national team of Nigeria has received a huge knock by respected Philippines journalist Amir Moukhtar who said the record of the coach doesn’t speak so well, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Saintfeit is reportedly locked in talks with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to become the new coach of the Super Eagles following the exit of Finidi George after the poor results in the last round of games in the world cup qualifiers.
He is in a straight battle with Eric Chelle after Herve Renard ruled himself out of the job citing the low wage on offer by the NFF. It is believed that Saintfeit has the backing of the president of the NFF Ibrahim Musa Gusau who has been his long term admirer.
It explains why Gusau is keen on bypassing the recommendation of Chelle by the technical committee for Saintfeit, who is presently at the helm as the head coach of the Philippines. Amir has however sounded a note of warning to the president.
” Since he (Saintfeit ) took over as coach of Philippines we have lost all but one of our games, which was the 1-1 draw against Indonesia. It is a record that stretches back to his time with Gambia. His team lost all of the last five games at the helm. Not too good if you look at the numbers”, he said.
” But one thing you must acknowledge is his hardwork and resilience. Always available and pushing to get the best out of his players but it certainly hasn’t worked here and it didn’t work during his last days with Gambia. Maybe it will be different with Nigeria”, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
