The national team of Nigeria now has its head coach position open after the NFF advised Steven Keshi to ‘walk away’ from the job.
This happened after the Super Eagles failed to book a place in Equatorial Guinea for the next AFCON tournament, consequent upon a 2-2 draw against a resilient South African side who played the last 20 minutes with ten men and led the Super Eagles by a goal difference until the 4th minute of additional time.
Flaws were detected in the tactics of the coach, who before now has held the Eagles job with the assent of the presidency. Now that the NFF has a better reason to do away with the ex-skipper of the Super Eagles, who is a better candidate for the job? Who will bell the cat?
In the last 20 years, the Super Eagles have averaged a coach in two years, that is not too bad a statistic for a football club, but for a national team, coaches have to be given good amount of time to groom their team in their own image so as to stand a better chance of glory. Using the last world cup winners as a case study, Joachim Loew coached the German team for more than 10 years before delivering the world cup in style for Germany. The NFF should try not to be in a haste to get rid of coaches, especially those who know their onions.
That said, if the NFF want to keep faith in Nigerian coaches, our best bet still lies on Amodu Shaibu and Samson Siasia. The former is already a house hold name in coaching Nigeria while the latter, a former international who many think was not given enough time to master his tactics for the Super Eagles.
Coach Amodu Shaibu, who before now has coached Nigeria to the nations cup semifinal and qualified the country for a world cup final, have had his fair share of disappointments, giving him this Job will give him the opportunity to deliver on his promises he showed while Samson Siasia will be looking to continue from where he left off after Keshi got his Job.
The big question for the Super Eagles now should be who can bell the cat? For me, Siasia performed well with most of this boys in the under age categories, winning two silver medals in the under-20 FIFA world cup and in the Olympics. His youthful poise gives him an edge above Amodu Shaibu, as he can bring modern techniques of the game to the team. If given enough time, he might just be the right one.
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This article was first published on 24th November 2014
obimartins
Martins Okafor is a Sports Writer for Connect Nigeria. He has been a sport buff for years, following stories and development in leagues and international competitions. His interest led him to writing stories – reporting on sporting events. He has superior interest in soccer, but knows much about other sports. He plans to have a blog and to advance in sport journalism. You can email him at: obimartins85 [at] gmail.com
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The national team of Nigeria now has its head coach position open after the NFF advised Steven Keshi to ‘walk away’ from the job.
This happened after the Super Eagles failed to book a place in Equatorial Guinea for the next AFCON tournament, consequent upon a 2-2 draw against a resilient South African side who played the last 20 minutes with ten men and led the Super Eagles by a goal difference until the 4th minute of additional time.
Flaws were detected in the tactics of the coach, who before now has held the Eagles job with the assent of the presidency. Now that the NFF has a better reason to do away with the ex-skipper of the Super Eagles, who is a better candidate for the job? Who will bell the cat?
In the last 20 years, the Super Eagles have averaged a coach in two years, that is not too bad a statistic for a football club, but for a national team, coaches have to be given good amount of time to groom their team in their own image so as to stand a better chance of glory. Using the last world cup winners as a case study, Joachim Loew coached the German team for more than 10 years before delivering the world cup in style for Germany. The NFF should try not to be in a haste to get rid of coaches, especially those who know their onions.
That said, if the NFF want to keep faith in Nigerian coaches, our best bet still lies on Amodu Shaibu and Samson Siasia. The former is already a house hold name in coaching Nigeria while the latter, a former international who many think was not given enough time to master his tactics for the Super Eagles.
Coach Amodu Shaibu, who before now has coached Nigeria to the nations cup semifinal and qualified the country for a world cup final, have had his fair share of disappointments, giving him this Job will give him the opportunity to deliver on his promises he showed while Samson Siasia will be looking to continue from where he left off after Keshi got his Job.
The big question for the Super Eagles now should be who can bell the cat? For me, Siasia performed well with most of this boys in the under age categories, winning two silver medals in the under-20 FIFA world cup and in the Olympics. His youthful poise gives him an edge above Amodu Shaibu, as he can bring modern techniques of the game to the team. If given enough time, he might just be the right one.
