DAY FINIDI GEORGE LOST SUPER EAGLES JOB

Aniekan Udofia

The resignation of Super Eagles Head coach Finidi George came rather late like the work authored Wole Soyinka, The Man Died, the job died long before his resignation.
Finidi George’s appointment as Head Coach of Super Eagles came as a surprise to many football lovers who believed that the man lacked the capacity to guide the national team. They questioned what credential earned him the top job given that an average performance as Coach of Enyimba Football Club of Aba was all that the man was known for.

Enyimba, a perennial and serial champion both at the domestic and international front, did not witness any significant achievement or improvement under the guidance of Coach Finidi. Finidi posted a below average performance for a team with class.

As assistant coach of the Super Eagles, Finidi’s impact could not be measured. But the administrators of football in Nigeria thought it wise to appoint such a man for the top footballing job in the country.

Finidi set out to do the job. With abysmal performances at the different friendly matches he posted, the nation began to have a clue that the wrong man was on the job. Against Mali in a friendly match, Finidi had invited several top Europe based players, Finidi made just two substitutions the entire 90 minutes. The essence of friendly matches as a tool to test players and get the right mix for the team was defeated. Players like Nathan Tella in hot form with Bayer Leverkusen left disappointed at the treatment meted to them by the coach.

When it was time for the World Cup qualifiers, Finidi’s first major test was against South Africa in Uyo. The team laboured to a 1 all scoreline. Finidi granted a post-match press conference. His uninspiring posture was evident. The next game against Benin Republic in a neutral ground in Cote d’ iVoire , Nigeria lost by 2 goals to 1.

Finidi, in a post-match conference, said he didn’t believe in tactics or formation, that the players decide what to do on the pitch at any given time. Finidi said he was more concerned about winning a match and not about 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. Even the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF who appointed Finidi, would have been embarrassed by that level of clueless expressions from a 21st century football manager. Those statements by Finidi were the day he lost his job before his resignation.

Finidi granted more interviews that exposed him as the greatest mistake to happen to the national team coaching unit. As Finidi spoke we could hear in the words of Ephraim Stephen Akan Essien, “Clueless, Inept, mentally lazy, tactically incompetent, nepotistically active, charismatically insensitive” coach that had ‘finidied’ the national team. In just two competitive games in charge, Finidi may have finished the hopes of Nigeria for a 2026 Senior World Cup appearance.

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