Super Eagles players has shown unhappiness with the Nigeria football federation (NFF) over the coaching situation of the team as the date for AFCON qualifiers draws near. Super Eagles players desperately in need of a coach.
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The team has been without coach since the exit of Finidi George after a poor display in the world cup qualifiers.
The NFF has said that they will employ an expatriate coach to handle the team before the start of the AFCON qualifiers in in September.
It is however less than a month to the for the qualifiers to begin, meanwhile there is still no coach in sight with the NFF silent on the search for a new coach.
Although coaches has been shortlisted and interviewed for the job, but yet still to be certain on the final decision to make.
Various reactions of players based on the issue
On the condition of anonymity a senior player in the team said “it is the players that take the sticks when things go south, but a lot need to be in place for us to perform at our best.
A coach needed to be in place to study the opposition, bring tactics for us to execute but it is less than a month and we don’t have one yet”.
“we players see these things as a step to failure but sadly the fans don’t. The NFF need to do better for us to be better in games of such nature.
Our opponents have coaches in place preparing for us. This really sad”. A player who was at the last AFCON also weigh in.
Another player who was also at the last AFCON said it is becoming habitual to delay announcing of a new coach, which means the coach has little or no time to asses each player before a call up or even playing them in games.
These things need to be planned. Not like employ a coach and expect to win the next game or get fired like Finidi. It is becoming the habit of the NFF to set up these coaches to fail by making late announcements”.
NFF on alert as Renard departs France
The Nigeria Football Federation continues to search for a reliable coach for the super eagles.
The football body was out on alert on Sunday afternoon following the resignation of France’s women’s coach, Herve Renard.
Former Zambia’s coach is one of the names mentioned as a possible candidate to take over the coaching duties.
Meanwhile Renard as earlier speculated announced his departure from the women’s team and his destination is likely to be an African country.
Elaho blasts the Nigeria Football Federation
Former Nigeria international, Friday Elaho, has blasted the NFF over their inability to get a coach for the Super Eagles with just less than a month to a crucial Africa cup of nations qualifiers.
It would be recalled that Finidi left his position as the coach of the national team after a bad display in the world cup qualifiers, after overseeing two games against south Africa and Benin Republic, with Nigeria drawing one against Bafana Bafana
in uyo, Akwa ibom state, while losing the second game against the Squirrel away from home in Cote d’ivoire.
Elaho also berated the NFF for the manner they handled the rift between Finidi George and Super Eagles striker, victor osimhen.
The Napoli and super eagles striker was seen cursing the coach on social media a few days before the Coach’s resignation as super eagles coach, with the NFF yet to make a statement to date.
In his words “I think the NFF is not serious” he said. “You just hired a coach for not up to two months, and look at what happened. A player was insulting the coach and NFF didn’t do anything about it.”
“If I were Finidi, I would do the same thing because if you people cannot support me I am just alone. Up till now, there is no coach and we have a game in September and we don’t have a coach. I think they are not serious.”
Selecting a super Eagles coach now a ‘secret ritual’
Still in search of a coach for the Super Eagles, the NFF technical committee has forwarded three shortlisted coaches for the super Eagles coaching position.
Which are: Eric Chelle, Tom Saintfiet and Steve McClaren. These names has been submitted to the NFF executive committee to consider.
This happened just after the France women’s coach Herve Renard through his agent demanded for a monthly salary of $180,000.
It is now most likely that the new coach may well be out of the shortlisted coaches.
In the midst of all these, the NFF has promised to appoint a foreign coach in time for the 2025 AFCON qualifiers, which begins early next month.
In September, the super Eagles opens their 2025 AFCON qualifying campaign at home against Benin, before a trip to another 2026 world cup qualifying games.
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The NFF should be in a haste to appoint a new coach couch before next month, order wise they will be left with no option than to pick a random coach which can bring about a disorganization in the team’s style of play.
Following the good performances of the Super eagles in the last AFCON it is well expected that they would come back and display better than they did.
But this could be a shame if they fail to even qualify for it. Therefore the NFF should act fast and bring solution to the problem of coaching duties in the team.
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