The stand in coach of the senior national team of Nigeria for their recently concluded friendly games against Ghana and Mali respectively didn’t cover himself in glory with his conduct, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Former Nigeria international Finidi George was handed the chance to lead the team in the two games which ended in a 2-1 win against Ghana and a 0-2 defeat to Mali in their second game in the Moroccan city of Marrakech.
Finidi was assistant to head coach Jose Peseiro who left upon the expiration of his contract at the end of last month. He is also a candidate for the job on a permanent basis, but it seems he didn’t quite get along with some players in the team during the games which he handled as head coach.
” Ademola Lookman was particularly furious and he was the only one who approached the coach to know why he got sparse minutes after what he did at the AFCON. But I can tell you he wasn’t the only one who was hurt”, a souce told OwnGoalNigeria.com.
” I think most players know that they won’t play all the time, but it’s a friendly game and you can’t bench a player who left his club for international games in two straight matches. He made just two substitutes against Mali when he could make five. I don’t think any coach in world football has made just two subs in a friendly game before now”, he started further.
Speaking on if the coach communicated to the players who didn’t get to play a minute out of the two games like Sadiq Umar, Nathan Tella, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Alhassan Yusuf, Francis Uzoho and Olorunleke Ojo he said nothing of such happened.
” There is a way you will tell a man to go to hell and he will look forward to the journey. That didn’t happen with any of the players to the best of my knowledge. The frustration was why three players snubbed him when he wanted to have a handshake after the game against Mali. They felt disrespected and rightly so in my opinion”, he concluded.
We sought to hear from a member of the backroom team on if what we heard is true but he stayed coy saying there was too much on the head of the coach, which must have led to some of the issues we raised.
” Remember he worked without any assistants. So he is responsible for almost everything for the two games. It is too much work for one man and naturally that will lead to a gap in communication. Finidi is a nice easy going man and wouldn’t act disrespectful to anyone on purpose”, he stated.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
