Former international, Adegoke Adelabu, has condemned a recent pronouncement by a member of the NFF Technical Committee, Victor Ikpeba, that the NFF settled for Finidi George as Super Eagles’ coach because they don’t have money to pay a foreign manager for the team.
Adelabu said the statement insults indigenous coaches, adding that it shows the type of thinking going on at the football federation.
“I don’t think that is a professional statement and it is very derogatory to the integrity of the indigenous coaches.
“It means, if we had sufficient funds the NFF would have gone beyond that. I think he should find a better reason for the selection of an indigenous coach.
“The NFF should have people that should speak on her behalf in a situation like this or the committee would have agreed to what they would tell the people when confronted by the press.
“We need to learn how to use our words. I don’t know what level of performance we expect from Finidi when we decided to ‘cut our coat according to our clothes’ and not according to our size (expectations). That statement should be reframed with due respect.”
He cautioned Finidi to be cautious in choosing players for national assignments.
George was named as Eagles coach on Monday by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) two months after former handler, Jose Peseiro,left the team.
Speaking with The Guardian, yesterday, Adelabu said that Finidi needs to assemble the best possible legs based on their current forms in their clubs, adding that he should start preparing for the forthcoming games immediately.
“He needs to play friendly matches to test his own instructional ability and how the players will respond. Any player can play well in training to secure a shirt, but not every player can maintain tactical discipline for a considerable period. That is our major problem,” he said.
Adelabu, an ex-player of IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan said; “We have this general mentality that our players respond well to foreign coaches than local ones because they want to be recommended to foreign clubs. I will advise Finidi to use each player’s ability to play to instructions as the yardstick for selection.
“He should ensure that they play in blocks across the pitch when we are in possession of the ball so that when we lose possession we will not look disorganised in the way we defend.”
