It is no longer news that the NFF have announced a new head coach for the Super Eagles in person of the German ‘Fire fighter’, as he his fondly called in Germany, talking about BRUNO LABBADIA
It’s been a while I did any write-up, but I just feel it’s important to do this, it is quite unfortunate we have various incompetent leaders at the helm of affairs in Nigeria, and it’s definitely glaring that sports and most especially football is suffering badly from administrative constipation.
I feel appointing and announcing a relatively unknown German at 5:35am on August 27, 2024, is quite dubious and shady and these are my reasons;
- To begin with, names linked to the vacant position of the Super Eagles in the last few months include Eric Challe,Tom Saintfiet, Antonio Caiceicao, Herve Renard and of recent Janne Andersson, the former coach of Sweden.
2) At no point in recent weeks was BRUNO LABBADIA’s name linked with the job in the last few months both in local and international media
- Just last week Friday 23rd of August Janne Anderson confirmed talks were ongoing with the NFF to a Sweden-based media. So why did the deal break down suddenly?
- I have never seen or heard where a country’s new head coach announcement will be done at 5:35am.
- The football federation made an announcement of the new Super Eagles head coach without highlighting the terms of contract of the coach.
I believe Nigerians deserve to know the number of years given to him and his monthly wages, why do these have to be overlooked?
- It is glaring it was a fire-brigade approach to make sure The Super Eagles get a coach before the 2025 AFCON qualifiers, just to cover their shame, And BOOM the football federation brought in a “fire fighter”
7) Remember NFF came out with their criteria few months back saying whoever is going to manage the national team must have a knowledge of African football and national team experience. Again how does Labbadia fit into this? It is looking that he is set to use the Super Eagles as testing ground for his national team experience.
CONCLUSION
THE NFF should explain to Nigerians why they decided to settle for a man who is not experienced in both national team and African football.
A man who is not even an upgrade on Finidi George in-terms of achievements.
THIS APPOINTMENT is nothing but a BLACK MARKET.
I am hoping this doesn’t end in tears.
By Feranmi Adegboyega Samuel (FAS)
This is a dull, uninspiring, and (sponsored) take. The obvious bias of the writer was given away with this statement: “A man who is not even an upgrade on Finidi George in terms of achievements.” The writer is probably blind to reality or too emotional to see the fallacy in his own assertion. By manner of both experience and achievements, BRUNO is far ahead of not only Finished George but also the rest of the other Nigerian local coaches alive! That’s a fact! Enough of all these sentiments and paid PR. That’s how you people said of Rohr and Poseiro and yet none of your overrated local Guardiolas/ ex-internationals currently alive have succeeded. Your article makes no sense.
Never mind the Nigerian press, we know them. We had several world class coaches in the past and we all know the results with the Super Eagles. Once it’s not their candidate, he’s given bad publicity even without resuming for work. They wanted their local guy, but they were disappointed by the smartness of the Minister. He learnt from the error of the last time when a local coach was sold to him by the press.
DESPITE ALL THE TIME THEY HAVE WASTED, TRAVELING FROM ONE COUNTRY TO ANOTHER, WASTING MONEY & TIME, LOOKING FOR WHAT IT DOESN’T LOST, CLAIMING THAT THEY WANT TO EMPLOY A NEW FOREIGN COACH. THOUGH, I PARTICULARLY WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED THAT A WRONG COACH WOULD BE APPOINTED AT LAST . A COACH THAT KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT AFRICAN FOOTBALL, CULTURES, PATTERNS, ENVIRONMENT.
** INFACT , FAILURE IS ON THE WAY. AFCON & WORLD CUP TICKET IS NOT GUARANTY.
NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT !!!!!
The above write-up reeks to high heavens of bias and sentiments . We should stop hyping our local coaches. Apart from Late Stephen Kesho , Emmanuel Amuneke and perhaps,Samson Siasia ,most of our home-groomed coaches lack the managerial ability and strong charisma to tinker the Super Eagles. Sunday Oliseh,Finidi George,Salisu Yusuf and others did not cover themselves in glory while managing the national team. Bruno Labbadia is welcome and we pray he succeeds. At least our players will respect him. The Italian -German coach should be allowed free hand to take all the decisions regarding players selection. We do not need the undue interference from the NFF Technical Committee .Goodluck Nigeria!
The only exceptional coach among those you have listed is STEPHEN KESHI. Keshi did not wait helplessly and haplessly that these over-rated coaches for the SE job before it was given to him. He got the job on merit and with enviable credentials. What credentials does Amunike have to coach the SE? The noise about him qualifying Tanzania to their first ever AFCON is a fluke. Why? Because Tanzania needed another results from other teams in the group to be able to scale through. I think the team was Lesotho or so. So, it was not his tactical aptitude that pushed the team to the mundial. To prove this, he was immediately sacked after the tournament following three losses and has been out of a reputable job since then. Is this the man we will hand over the SE too? Or Finidi George, despite being an assistant for 2 years to Poseiro shows he has learnt nothing? He is now a coach for Rivers United. Let’s see how he fares. Or Siasia that failed woefully as the SE coach and has only “excelled” (if we can call it so) at underage tournaments with overage players? Asides this, his corruption is second to none as evident in his FIFA ban. Siasia will never learn any lessons; after all, the leopard does not change its spots. Moreover, the SE is not a place for rehabilitating ex-convict coaches. Or is it Oliseh that has been out of job since 2015? Who among our so-called expert ex-internationals alive and current local coaches can lace the boots of Bruno in terms of exposure/ experience and achievements? Let’s not be blinded by sentiments or watery articles from lazy journalists. The fact remains that only an experienced FOREIGN coach can guide the SE to glory!