Laloko’s Revisionist Criticism of Westerhof Is unfortunate News

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Laloko’s Revisionist Criticism of Westerhof Is unfortunate

By Daily Sports on April 21, 2020

Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Technical Director Kashimawo Laloko has stirred the hornet's nest as he let out his outburst against the rumored interest of ex-Super Eagles Technical Adviser Clemence Westerhoff to return as the senior national team's coach after leaving the post 26 years ago.

The Dutchman Westerhof was in charge of the Super Eagles from 1989 to 1994, winning one AFCON title and helped secure qualification for Nigeria to participate in its first ever World Cup final which held in USA in 1994 where his team reached the second round of that competition.

At 79 years old now,Westerhof surely comes accross as too old for the hassle of the Super Eagles job and not many,despite the success of his time here could possibly look forward with excitement and optimism to see the Dutchman return as the team's coach. It would in fact be a painful sight to see such an old man being subjected to the tension and heart attack inducing job of managing a soccer team,not to talk of a national team and, of course,not to talk of the Super Eagles.

Westerhof is widely and rightly regarded as a success for Nigeria though during his time with the Super Eagles, But Laloko,in arguing against the Dutchman's return, is of the opinion that Westerhof was never a good enough coach for Nigeria. He told the Guardian recently:

“As far as I am concerned, Westerhof is not a coach but an organiser. He was lucky that during his time as the coach of the Super Eagles he had direct contact with the late Aikhomu, and things worked out well for him. He cannot get same treatment now."

This is simply revisionism at its dishonest best and Laloko is simply wrong.

As a former Technical Director of the Nigerian national team,Laloko should know that the job of succesfully coaching a team goes beyond a knowledge of match tactics and physical fitness of players. It involves a top notch knowledge of managing the team and being an 'organizer' to ensure that the right ambience, beyond the pitch, that could aid the performance of the team is created.

In Westerhof's case, it involved bypassing th bottlnecks of NFF's officials to get in direct contact with the then number 2 man of Nigeria Agustus Aikhomu who,graciously,had the interest of the Super Eagles deeply in mind and was trusting of the 'Dutchgerian' enough to give him his full support which largely paid off successfully for Nigeria as Westerhof delivered a long sought-after maiden qualification to the senior World Cup in the USA and won the AFCON to boot.

Westerhof may have been too brash for many of our football administrators then but he infused Nigerian football fans with confidence. He was a show master who got football jobs done.

Great coaches in the world of football are not too insecure to not surround themselves with experts in specific fields of the game in order to help the work of making their team great. Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho,as intellignt as they are, surround themselves with people who can bring genuine insights into their coaching job. In fact,the great Sir Alex Fegurson was famed for delegating a lot of his day to day coaching job to his assistants while he focused on some off field matters that would help.Manchester United but we do not hear him being accused of not being a good coach.

Westerhof was no different in this regard. It should be admirable how he was able to wade through the contours of setting up a strong backroom staff as well as dealing with a national football administration that many considered to be in considerable disarray at the time.

Westerhoff was no saint but he did his best for Nigeria. Westerhof loved his job as Nigeria's coach and made a lot of sacrifices to succeed with the Super Eagles. It is certainly disrespectful to say someone who achieved at international level as Westerhoff did with Nigeria is not a good coach.

While he may be too old to return as Technical Advisor now, his place in the history of Nigerian football stands as a beacon of light and a grumpy Laloko cannot erase it.

Source Daily Sports

Posted April 21, 2020