IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

Just like a recurring decimal we are once again back to a familiar terrain. The search for a new coach, who will replace Jose Pasero as the coach of the Super Eagles, has begun in earnest and trust the NFF to be upbeat. For those of us who are familiar with this process, you should be able to recall that it normally follows a premeditated pattern. The actors as far as the glass house is concerned are as constant as the northern star and the script never changes.

The first in the series of actions orchestrated by the NFF is to declare the job of the head coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria vacant, after which the football body moves in immediately and appoints his assistant as an interim coach. In a situation where the assistant is not appointed as a stop-gap coach as was the case when Genet Rohr was fired, the technical director of the NFF or any other Nigerian coach for that matter will be appointed. This was exactly the case when the Super Eagles were disbanded just before the 2002 world cup in Korea/Japan.

The coaching crew comprising Amodu Shuaibu, his assistants Joe Erico and Stephen Keshi were replaced by Chief Adegboyega Onigbinde. Recall that Onigbinde was in charge of the Super Eagles (then Green Eagles) at the last AFCON in Cote di Voire where the Eagles clinched the silver medal. This was the first time an indigenous coach will achieve this feat with the national team. But unfortunately, he and his team were not celebrated on their return from Cote di Voire with a silver medal. Instead, they were treated like pariahs and the team was disbanded.

 One can therefore, imagine Onigbinde’s indignation and surprise when in 1992 a foreign coach in the person of Clemence Westerhof led the Super Eagles to Senegal 1992 and brought home a bronze medal, but was celebrated as if he won the gold. In fact, the minister for sports, Alex Akinyele asked Nigerians to clap for Westerhof and his team when they were received in government house. As he watched in utter disbelief, Onigbinde cried out: “His bronze is shining more than my silver”. As if to pacify him for the unjust treatment meted out to him in 1984, he was eventually given the mandate to lead the Super Eagles to the world cup in 2002, where they could not make it out of the group stage, with the likes of England, Argentina and Sweden in contention.

It was the lot of a former Nigerian international Austin Eguavoen, to take over from Gernot Rohr and he, it was, who took Nigeria to the AFCON in Algeria. Like people suffering from collective amnesia, the wise men in the glass house conveniently forgot that it was the same Eguavoen who was in charge when Nigeria participated at the 2006 AFCON. And just like it happened in the 2024 edition, Nigeria won all three matches at the group stage and were knocked out at the second round by a less fancied Tunisian side who managed to make it to the knock out stage as best losers.

 Nobody saw this coming especially when some bookmakers were already beginning to tip Nigeria for glory, courtesy of an inspiring group stage display. So what went wrong? The technical director cum coach was obviously technically deficient. His Tunisian counterpart did his work by shutting out our most potent attackers Moses Simon and Samuel Chukwueze, who operated through the wings. With their wings clipped, the Eagles who could no longer fly became a shadow of themselves. Out plotted and out smarted, the Nigerian coach, who was not properly schooled in the art of match reading, had no answers to the questions posed by his Tunisian counterpart. So why sack a coach when you know that his pre-determined successor was obviously inferior?

 A coach is said to be as good as his last outing, which explains why clubs and countries are in the habit of appointing decorated coaches. Of cause, there are coaches whose names alone attract laurels and who bask in the euphoria of victories. Recall that the last time Eguavoen took Nigeria to the AFCON hosted by Egypt in 2006, the country was sent packing at the same stage of the competition by Cote de Voire. Interestingly Nigeria also won all three matches at the group stage. Talk about history repeating itself.

 But the last time Gemot Rohr managed Nigeria at the same competition in 2022 the country had a bronze medal to show for it. With the exit of Eguavoen, came Jose Pasero as the next substantive coach of the Super Eagles. We all know that he was a dark horse with uninspiring antecedents, who no doubt possessed he basic pre-requisites of the coach of the Super Eagles as stipulated by the NFF. So, against all odds, he got the nod and thus began his reign, which got off on a most unflattering note. He could not just hit the ground running, as the coach of the national team. In an attempt to subtlety force his resignation, the NFF reportedly slashed his salary, yet he stayed on. It was against this unfavorable background that the Eagles competed for honors at the last AFCON and this explains why the NFF gave the coach a semi-final target in a competition that Nigeria have won three times, finished second four times and picked up third place on eight occasions.

The Eagles were unimpressive at the group stage, but it was at the knock out stage that they really came alive. This was when Nigerians began to really appreciate the quality of players in the team. Nigeria had arguably the best players in the tournament and the crown was ours to take. It was in the final match against the host nation that the coach finally proved his critics right. Why play so defensively against a side that you have beaten initially at the group stage? Why play so cautiously when you have a weapon of mass destruction in the person of Victor Osimhen, who happens to be Africa’s best and one of the best in the world? By being so defensively minded, Oshimhen was rendered impotent. On the contrary, cote di voire’s Sabatien Haller, just recuperating from an illness, became more prolific because of his team’s pattern of play.

As one bemused spectator put it: “How can a boy carrying Ak47 be afraid of an opponent who is armed with a mere catapult”? Consequent upon the coach’s superior tactics, the Ivorians dominated every aspect of the game, even with an indigenous coach who was asked to take over the team from an expatriate in the after math of a 4-0 humiliating defeat to Equatorial Guinea. Nobody gave them any chance. But they proved to be the proverbial cat with nine lives as they rose from the ashes of that crushing defeat and near elimination, to clinch the coveted trophy.

The upshot of my submission therefore, is that we lost a golden opportunity to cover ourselves in glory, no thanks to a technically deficient coach, who had an assemblage of some of the best players in the continent, but lacked the expertise to deploy them effectively when it mattered most. It is not surprising therefore, that his less illustrious counterpart seized the initiative and the rest as they say, is history. The hunt for a new coach has begun after Pasero decided to call it quits, and trust the NFF to go through the motions with amazing dexterity. After mandating Pasero’s assistant, ex-international, Finidi George to take over the affairs of the team, this is now the time for the NFF to commence names dropping. In case you are not aware, this has to do with a roll call of sorts, when you will hear the names of some of the most renowned personalities in football management, especially those who are currently not contracted. In this vein, names like Jose Morinho, Zinedine Zidane, Antonio Conte, Harve Renard, Emmanuel Amunike etc have been making the rounds.

The truth of the matter is that with the exception of Emmanuel Amunike, none of those coaches will eventually get the nod, as the NFF will never hire a first grade coach for the Eagles and this is for obvious reasons. They know full well that no first class coach will ever tolerate their meddlesomeness, shenanigans, tantrums and shoddiness. These coaches excluding Emmanuel Amunike, consequent upon their experiences, are used to the best as far as the administration of football is concerned. So, they will not compromise with regards to standards.

Before he was eventually sacked, Gernet Rohr was owned a backlog of salaries and he dared not complain. Instead, it was the media that brought the issue to the public domain. Moreover, it was also alleged that some big shots in the glass house are entitled to a certain percentage of the coaches’ salary. It therefore becomes more understandable why the NFF cannot employ a first class coach.

 In fact, the only time the federation attempted to hire a renowned personality in the person of the Brazilian Carlos Alberto Perera, the entire exercise was as comic as it was melodramatic. The new employed coach landed in Nigeria and was officially presented. He also watched the Nigerian team in action, after which he went back to his base with the assurance that he would be coming to resume fully as the Nigerian gaffer. That was the last time we set eyes on the Brazilian. Obviously not impressed with what he saw and heard, he decided that Nigeria was a no-go area and that was the end of the story.

Suffice to say that the Super Eagles have been managed by a plethora of coaches, indigenous and foreign, and one thing that applies to virtually all of them is that none is a decorated coach and this has really affected the futures of the national team. We have won the AFCON only three times and have not gone beyond the second round at the world cup. We have been left behind by the likes of Morocco, Senegal, Ghana and Cameroon, who have made it to the semi-final and quarter final respectively. So, as the search for Pasero’s replacement commences in earnest, we hope that the NFF will get it right this time. Let us jettison sentiment and personal interest and appoint a quality coach with the aura of a champion; a coach with a winning mentality who can mould gold out of clay. Remember that you cannot give what you don’t have.

 By Chidi  Anyamele

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