By Victor Enyinnaya on January 16, 2023

Super Eagles technical adviser top job was finally narrowed down on the Portuguese national, Jose Peseiro and so he has been.  And without much ado his score card so far is not impressive at all.

The last regime led by Amaju Pinnick insinuated that it cannot afford the bill former French national team coach, Laurent Blanc asked for. Such was the main reason why that high flying and caliber of technical hand missed the job from Nigeria Football Federation. 

It would be recalled that this newspaper exclusively revealed the Portugese national is receiving N20.9 million (50,000 Dollars) Monthly.

Recap, since he came to the saddle the Nigerian national side has played series of international friendlies without any headway. Aside from the fact of playing abysmally in those games there was no depth, purposefulness amongst the players.

Technical input was totally absent in each game the Super Eagles played. It will also be instructive to point out here that, tactically the Super Eagles was nowhere to be found.

Honestly, that was the high point and high light of the Super Eagles last year or better still, since Peseiro took the mantle of the once upon a time high flying Africa country national team. The aura of absolute confidence and seriousness amongst the team’s players that was always the hallmark of the Super Eagles deserted them immediately the Portugese took over. 

The new coach changed the winning playing pattern of the team and brought in his rag-tag system which has deepened the woes of the team in the outings last year. 
For the records, it has shown that Jose Peseiro does not have the capacity to handle a team in the high caliber national side like the Super Eagles. He has demonstrated his overall inability to coach the Nigerian flagship side.

There is no basis going on and on analyzing the capability or otherwise of the Portugese national. His dossier as coach in the public domain clearly showed he is deficient on the job even at club level; talk more of a national team in the region of the Super Eagles.

One will not take the trouble any longer to discuss his merit of the job or otherwise. Truth is that only Amaju Pinnick and his cohorts are in better position to tell Nigerian fans the criteria used or that formed the choice of the lowly rated coach for our national team.

Again, this columnist will also distance himself on debate on why Peseiro was employed in the first place.  Such energy should be geared toward finding winning way forward. He is a spilled milk and so we should ignore him and rather find evolving way around it.

My candid take will be for the executive committee of the NFF to go through his contract paper and find way of settling amicably with him so both parties will be free to go their separate ways without any let or hindrance.

Though, current NFF helmsman, Ibrahim Gusau and few others were instrumental to the employment of Peseiro by the last regime however, there must be way out to ease Jose Peseiro out of the senior national team in time like this. Ibrahim Gusau and his men must ensure the Super Eagles team will be on its feet as it used to.  The Nigerian team has unfortunately become an immense embarrassment to the teeming fans of the game that cares.

For instance, last year it became increasingly difficult to be associated with the once upon a time darling of a national team. This is one dark spot Ibrahim Gusau and his executive committee members must be ready to resolve once and for all by sourcing for funds and employ a tested and very knowledgeable foreign technical adviser.  In as much as this columnist is not advocating booting out of Jose Peseiro no, but a civilized way and manner that it won’t attract the stick of FIFA. The reinvention of Super Eagles should be uppermost in the agenda of Ibrahim Gusau led NFF.

Super Eagles failed woefully last year. The team’s dismal performance from one major championship to another put the image of the country in bad light. We saw the team’s outing at the AFCON held in Cameroun and the qualification for Qatar World Cup.  The team struggled all through and at the end it was efforts that yielded nothing. One strongly suggests that this issue of calmly showing Jose Peseiro the exit door would be the best thing that would happen to football at the senior level and big relief for the nation.

The present chief coach does not have the right credentials to handle Super Eagles. What the Nigerian side needs today is clean slate. The team needs to be rebuilt. Many things went wrong with the side and therefore Ibrahim Gusau though part and parcel of this rot has the opportunity to redeem the worsening state of the team. The foreign coach must be an all embracing personality that has high performance ability. Aside from thorough cleaning and rebuilding of the Eagles, he must also be one that has the charisma so charming to fire the players up for optimum performance each time they adore national team colour.

The players’ spirit and fighting ability are currently at lowest ebb which must be drastically changed and it is a technical hand worth his sort that would be able to turn around the Super Eagles glaringly as being needed presently.

Ibrahim Gusau and his men in NFF must not take no as an answer this term. There must be concentrated efforts to bring back Super Eagles to her rightful place without any further delay. Nigeria can conveniently pick bill of any coach in the World if corruption takes the back seat in the hiring of world class coach for the team.

Past exercises especially the immediate past where Rohr was smuggled in helped in no smaller measurer to bring Super Eagles to its knees today. Ibrahim Gusau and his team knew what to do to amicably off load this wasteful luggage called Jose Peseiro from Super Eagles squad. When the technical adviser’s problem is finally solved in open deal carrying FIFA along then the country will be home and dry and coast clear for growth. Gusau must be ready to ensure he will have the courage and bold enough to solve this problem he created with the last regime he was fully integral part of.

In short, he played a leading role in this anomaly in Super Eagles technical adviser employment. The opportunity has presented itself for him to use his long years on the scene to correct it for the good of the game in Nigeria.

After that, the kind of players into the team must also be revisited accordingly too, though this is a different ball game first thing first.  We anchor here and keep our figures firmly crossed as we keep shooting hard till next week. Meanwhile, we wait!!

Source Daily Sports Nigeria

Posted January 16, 2023

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