The appointment of Finidi George as the new head coach of the Super Eagles was a huge surprise in some quarters.

Of course, it was apparent that the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, was leaning towards an indigenous coach for the national team.

It is almost a pendulum with these appointments. When a local coach is not performing well with the Eagles, there will be calls for a foreigner. A yearning for a more tactically savvy handler.

When the foreigner fails – like Jose Peseiro did – the argument flips. You begin to hear talk of us encouraging Nigerian coaches, how they know these players more than anyone else and of course, the chance of harvesting talents from the Nigerian Premier Football League, NPFL.

The two names that were expected to be picked from this time around were Finidi and Emmanuel Amuneke.

A lot of observers expected the NFF to appoint Amuneke.

He won the hearts of the nation as coach of Nigeria’s U17 team, leading them to glory at the FIFA U17 World Cup.

On the continent, he qualified Tanzania for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations – their first in nearly 40 years.

However, Amuneke’s record with Egypt’s Misr Lel Makkasa and Zambia’s Zanaco left much to be desired.

The 53-year-old also failed to help the Nigeria U20 team qualify for the AFCON in 2017.

But Ayodeji Adegbenro, a Sports Administrator, insists the NFF has made the right choice.

“Finidi is miles ahead of Amuneke. He has won the league with Enyimba, has two seasons CAF Champions League experience. He also assisted Peseiro for 20 months,” Adegbenro tells DAILY POST.

“Amuneke has failed at every coaching position since he won the U17 in 2015. He’s one of the major reasons we didn’t qualify for Qatar. He shouldn’t be anywhere near the Super Eagles job,” he added.

Many have argued that Finidi represents the debris of Peseiro’s time in charge.

Adegbenro explained, “If we wanted Peseiro’s shadow looming over us in the shape of Finidi, why didn’t we just keep the Portuguese?

“He wanted more money to stay. We couldn’t afford it.

“However, my point is that, given a choice between Finidi and Amuneke, Finidi is way better.”

It could also be that Amuneke did not have enough backers in the room where the decision was made.

An insider tells DAILY POST the story of how Amuneke seemingly bungled the Eagles’ chances of playing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The source said: “He was drafted in by the Minister. On the morning of the second leg (against Ghana) in Abuja, he convinced Eguavoen to switch formation and play Osimhen as lone striker.

“Even though they trained with two strikers, Osimhen and Ighalo all week.”

All that is in the past. Looking to the future, Finidi has been saddled with the task of ensuring Nigeria qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

Already, the three-time African champions find themselves in third place in Group C of the qualifying series, behind Rwanda and South Africa.

Their next fixture will be at home against Bafana Bafana.

“I think the expectation is for him to navigate the World Cup qualifying group. That is his immediate assignment.

“Having said that, I expect the NFF to give him the same support they would have given a foreigner. Allow him to pick the assistants he will work with.

“You might not pay him as much as you’re paying the expatriates. But pay him well. And pay him when due.

“And do not undermine his position before the players he is supposed to manage. Very important,” Adegbenro added.

Following Chelsea’s commanding 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday, manager Mauricio Pochettino showered praise on Noni Madueke for his exceptional performance, particularly highlighting his support for youngster Alfie Gilchrist on the right flank.

Goals from Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson secured a comfortable win for the hosts, with Pochettino emphasising the significance of a strong response after a string of disappointing results.

In contrast, Spurs endured a lacklustre display, prompting frustrations from manager Ange Postecoglou, who was visibly irked with Cristian Romero and Pape Matar Sarr during the first half.

Amidst the action, Gilchrist, making only his second Premier League start, showcased his talent on the right side of Pochettino’s defence, effectively neutralising the threat of Son Heung-min.

Reflecting on the match in his post-match interview, Pochettino commended Madueke’s impact, stating: “If you see today, Noni Madueke was amazing in the way, the effort that he helped the full-back. The midfielders and the whole team in both phases were connected.”

His words underscored the collective effort that propelled Chelsea to victory and showcased Madueke’s pivotal role in supporting the defensive line.

[DailyPost]

Real Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti, has confirmed that he will start two different goalkeepers for their next two matches.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Ancelotti revealed that Thibaut Courtois will start this weekend’s LaLiga clash with Cadiz.

Courtois has been out with ACL and meniscus injuries, but is now fit and available for selection.

However, Ancelotti will start Andriy Lunin for next week’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich.

“Courtois will play tomorrow, Lunin will play vs Bayern on Wednesday,” Ancelotti said.

When asked who will play a potential Champions League final, he replied: “I don’t know.”

[DailyPost]

Fresh facts about how Finidi George beat fan favourite Emmanuel Amuneke and other applicants to the Super Eagles job have emerged, The PUNCH reports.

Monday, the Nigerian Football Federation approved the recommendations of its Technical Committee to appoint Finidi as coach ahead of over 60 other local and foreign applicants.

Some of the other coaches who applied are US U-19 coach Michael Nsien, Spain-based former Katsina United coach Henry Makinwa, Sylvanus Okpala and Daniel Amokachi. Former Cameroon coach Antonio Conceicao and Dutchman Danny Bujis also reportedly applied for the job.

A member of the NFF Technical Committee, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said some stakeholders had tried to influence their decision in favour of their candidate.

He said Technical Committee members, however, resolved to stick to their guns and pick the best candidate for the position no matter whose ox was gored.

“Some of these people think they are the masters of the game, but they don’t know that some of us have been in this game for some time too. Do you know they set up a WhatsApp platform to decide and influence who will become the coach of the Super Eagles. But we snubbed them,” our source said.

“It could have been the other way round and we would still move on and support whoever the NFF picked.

“We know that some candidates that were not picked for the job would complain, that’s life for you. The important thing now is to support who is there and see how we can qualify for the World Cup. Now we have a manager, he’s going to coach the team, he has the desire to coach and he’ll definitely sit down with the federation officials to sort out his contract.”

On how they arrived at Finidi as the best choice for Eagles, our source said with just weeks to the crucial World Cup qualifiers against rivals South Africa, they needed someone who had an in-depth knowledge of the squad, and not a new coach who would come with a new philosophy alien to the players.

He added that Finidi, having served for 20 months under Peseiro, emerged the right man for the job, while his knowledge of domestic and continental football as current NPFL champions Enyimba also gave him the nod.

Our source added, “Finidi, with due respect to him, has been on ground, and he’s in tune with the dynamics of the modern game, and that for us is a big plus. He’s working with Enyimba, won a league title for them, has coached on the continent and he’s been busy coaching in recent years.

“At the national team level, he’s been with the Eagles as assistant and we know we have some tricky World Cup qualifiers ahead. A new coach might come in with tactics that the players will struggle to adapt to. We don’t need that now.

“Also, as a coach who understand the domestic league very well, his experience in this regard will come in handy when selecting players for the home-based players.”

The Technical Committee member added monetary considerations also played a role in Finidi’s choice for the job.

“Who will pay a foreign coach $70,000 in today’s Nigeria? The money is just not there,” our source added.
Meanwhile, some of the applicants have spoken on the process that led to the appointment of the new coach.

Even though Emmanuel Amuneke described the process as “fair”, he admitted that there was no interview to select the best candidate for the job.

“There was no interview (for the job), neither was there any talk about the job with the federation. There was no contact from the federation nor was there an offer to take the job. They have chosen a new coach, who is one of us, we just need to move on and support him,” Amuneke said.

When asked if he thought the process of selecting the candidate for the coaching role was transparent, US U-19 coach Michael Nsien, who also applied for the job, said, “It depends on people’s standards of process. There weren’t interviews, which I think is basic, it would give the appearance (that it was transparent) at least.”

Nsien, a former U-23 national team star, is positive Finidi will get a competent backroom staff to work with.

“Hopefully he is surrounded with good staff,” he said.

Another applicant, Sylvanus Okpala, who won the AFCON title in 1980 as a player and as an assistant coach in 2013, declined comments on the process that saw Finidi emerge as the winner but congratulated the former Ajax star.

He said, “The important thing is that Finidi has been selected and he is there now. All he needs is the support of everyone to excel, but the biggest support he can get is the one he gives to himself to be successful and take the Eagles to where they belong.

“I feel okay with Finidi’s appointment as the new Super Eagles coach because all of us cannot be there and obviously only one person will be appointed among us. I congratulate him and I wish him the best, hoping that he will take the Eagles to the next level.”