Former Nigeria international striker and a member of the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Victor Ikpeba has fired a barb at his former teammates, who have been vocal in their criticism of newly appointed Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle.
Chelle was named as the new coach of the Nigerian team by the NFF on the recommendation of the technical committee, he will take over from Austine Eguavoen who held the position in interim capacity in the AFCON qualifiers.
Eguavoen is now expected to return to his role as technical director of the football house, with Chelle now saddled with the responsibility of handling the team in the upcoming world cup qualifiers games in March.
The announcement has drawn criticism from a lot of quarters largely from former players of the team, who were at a time teammates of Ikpeba who was a part of the body that decided in handing the role to the former coach of Mali.
In an interview on a radio program on Brila FM monitored by our editorial team, Ikpeba called for Chelle to be given the necessary support to thrive before taking a swipe at his former colleagues who were silent when one of them Finidi George was going through a hard time while at the helm and coach.
Finidi was openly called out by the team’s top striker Victor Osimhen in an Instagram video, where he was reacting to a report that says the coach questioned his commitment to the team owing to the injury that saw him miss the games against South Africa and Benin Republic respectively.
“LET US RALLY AROUND THE MANAGER AND PLAYERS. IF WE WIN THE 2 GAMES IN MARCH, WE ARE BACK IN CONTENTION FOR THE WORLD CUP. THIS IS NOT ABOUT MANAGER. HE IS WHAT WE HAVE NOW AND WE WILL SUPPORT HIM”, he said.
“WHEN FINIDI WAS HEAD COACH, HOW MANY OF THESE EX INTERNATIONALS CAME OUT TO SUPPORT HIM AND SPEAK FOR HIM WHEN THERE WERE ISSUES WITH PLAYERS.”
Are Ademola
