Ndubuoke Wants Interim Manager, Overhaul For S’Eagles

The General Manager, Heartland FC of Owerri, Fan Ndubuoke, has urged the Nigerian Football Association (NFA) to appoint an interim manager for the Super Eagles pending the restructuring of the team.

Ndubuoke told the Tidesports over the weekend in Owerri that the NFA needed to fill the vacuum created by Samson Siasia’s sack while it took time to analyse what led to his failure.

“The best thing should be for NFA to take time and analyse the situation and find out why Siasia failed and what made him arrogant as people say,” he said.

The Heartland boss warned the NFA against being in a hurry to appoint another coach for the Eagles.

“ I am not comfortable with the names that are being bandied about as possible replacement. I am still laughing at the names that are being bandied about.

“Why is NFA in a hurry to appoint a new coach just because people are looking for jobs?”

Ndubuoke also advocated for an overhaul of the national team using players from the Nigerian league.

“The practice of always inviting more than eight foreign players each time Nigeria has an international engagement should stop.

“We should not have more than four foreign players and the bulk should be from the Nigerian League.”

Also reacting to Siasia’s sack, the Chairman of the Imo chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, John Nwogu, said that the action was a welcome development.

Nwogu said that since it was part of the terms of contract for Siasia to qualify Nigeria for the Nations Cup, he should be sacked having failed to do so.

He urged the NFA to go for a foreign technical adviser for the Super Eagles, “preferably a Dutch, who will relate well with the players’’.

Meanwhile, in Ilorin, football enthusiasts also received the sack of Siasia with mixed feelings.

A cross-section of football fans, who spoke with Tidesports condemned the decision of the NFA, saying that it was taken in a hurry.

Some of the fans blamed the failure of the national team to qualify for the 2012 African Nations’ Cup on the the players’ loss of focus.

Fatai Alagbede, a football fan, asserted that impatience made the nation’s football governing body to arrive at the decision.

“Siasia should have been given another opportunity. Inconsistency in appointing coaches for the Super Eagles is what has caused the problem of the team.”

He suggested that instead of terminating Siasia’s appointment, a foreign technical adviser should have been considered to oversee the team.

Another, football enthusiast, Lanre Mahmud, condemned the NFA’s action, saying that it was not in the interest of football loving people in the country.

“We are strongly against the decision”

However, some fans lauded the step taken by the body, describing it as a step in the right direction.

Alhaji Fatai Eleja, in his reaction, said that failure of the Eagles to qualify for the Nations’ Cup was enough reason for the NFA to relieve the coach of his appointment.

“Siasia has failed in the mandate given to him to qualify the team for the Nations’ cup.”

He, however, said that efforts should be mad to fill the vacuum in time with a better replacement.

“The NFA should strive hard for a better replacement. It should engage an experienced foreign coach for the job,” he said.