Finidi George has been announced as the substantive Super Eagles manager. Naturally, the appointment has received a lot of applause and of course we have also heard voices with differing views. Managing the Super Eagles is one of the toughest jobs in the world of football.
Apart from the fact that Nigeria is a country with more than 100 million coaches who always know which players should be invited for any particular game or tournament, they also know the best players that should be in the starting XI without watching any training session.
But the very outspoken fans are the least of the problems; the bigger challenge is actually getting the best cooperation and enabling environment from the Nigeria Football Federation.
For a starter, Finidi is quite lucky to have a boss that does not contest the limelight with his coaches and players. He speaks only when it is necessary, and is not a self-appointed scout for the Super Eagles. What he needs is full support in other areas to make his work a lot less challenging outside the field of play.
Westerhof and other foreigners
The foreign coaches who have managed the Super Eagles always had their problems limited to their salaries being delayed or lack of enough funds to execute the kind of campaign they desired. The Nigerian-born managers face these problems, in addition to other very crucial issues, and this includes having their assistants forced on them.
When Dutchman Clemens Westerhof, who remains the most successful coach of the Eagles, gave the Super Eagles camp a new look on resumption of duties. A player who had been in the Eagles many times before the Hollander took over narrated a story of how he met all his needed kits well arranged on his bed the moment he arrived in the camp.
You would say it is meant to be so, but it was never so until somebody had to make it work like that, otherwise the player would not have spoken about it.
Choosing Finidi's assistants
Getting enough kits is the least problem, and the NFF is known to have a very good relationship with their kit sponsor. The real deal is how Finidi gets his assistant coaches amongst other matters.
In the modern era, managers do not work with whoever is made available to them; they move from team to team with their dependable assistants. Some of these remain with their assistants for a long time while others graduate to take up full responsibilities themselves as in the case of Pep Guardiola and Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta.
One huge problem a coach can have is working with an assistant forced down on them, who then thinks that he is as good as the head coach or even better fitted for the position. There are assistants who the general public hardly knows their names, because they maintain their professional position at the background while working to make the team succeed.
They hardly ever speak to the press unless clearly asked to do so by the head coach. No manager wants any deputy who wants to struggle the limelight with him.
Another type of avoidable assistants are the ones that can be described as snitches. Their loyalty will rest more on the person who helped them get to the position, rather than serving jointly with their direct boss to make the team better. Soon you would begin to hear such comments as ‘I warned him' or ‘he doesn’t listen to anyone' when the team loses a game. When they win you could hear ‘He’s [the assistant] the one doing the main work.'
Imposition of players and agents
We have heard stories that there are some extended members of the federation whose stock in trade is to directly or indirectly foist players on managers, especially with the age-grade teams. The NFF leadership must protect Finidi from such unscrupulous elements.
Some people over-exaggerate their roles in bringing in coaches as a means to blackmail and pressure the coaches into doing their bidding. Some work in tandem with agents to get players on the call up list as a way of increasing their market value.
The age-grade teams are usually a busy place for the players’ marketers, and this trading even gets across to the Ministry of Sports. A past sports minister allegedly forced his nephew into the Flying Eagles, and it was so glaring that the lad that came in from England knew very little about the business of football on the pitch.
The help in this area must be mutual, such that as the leadership of the NFF tries their best to protect Finidi from agents and members of the Federation, the coach must also help himself.
We have seen some Nigerian coaches who set themselves up for ridicule by demanding cash from players and their agents. I believe no trace of such behavior was found in Finidi, and that is why he got the nod, but moving on, he has to be careful of the banana peel and not impose any player on himself.
Finidi must also perfect the act of communicating very well, such that his grievances are heard first and direct by the NFF, rather than via the media or wild rumours.
In asserting himself, he must also understand that his employers are first the NFF, and must give them their recognition and respect unlike what we have seen in the past when the coach bypasses the NFF to do discuss with the minister and his team on a regular basis. Then he proceeds to secure the connection that gets him a seat inside Aso Rock, and gets uncontrollable against the NFF and even the sports minister.
For the good of the Super Eagles
The Super Eagles team is the biggest brand the NFF has, and it is indeed the biggest sports brand in Nigeria. A very happy Finidi George is very good for the federation. There have been accusations over the years against the NFF of treating the Nigerian managers of the Super Eagles less than their European counterparts in terms of pay structure and general provisions and relationship styles that undermine the status of the Nigerians.
In one sentence summary, the Nigerians hardly get what they need to make work flow easier. This must be put in the past, as we begin to witness a new era that emboldens the Nigerians to achieve great marks, using Finidi as another starting point.
We are in a period where the news on the progress of the players and the team should be making the headlines, rather than rancours over tampered players list, arrears of salaries and denied bonus. We should avoid quarrels over who should determine the teams to play in international friendlies, and where to camp the team before tournaments.
Let there be a clear template of how things should work. The coach and the Federation should have a clear work flow pattern, such that the technical committee that remained quite calm during the reign of Jose Peseiro does not suddenly become so vociferous with demands and questions that the Coach Finidi gets to know of at the newspaper stand.
Enough said.