By Francis Ajuonuma
As the search for a foreign coach to take over the Super Eagles’ top job continues, the national chairman of Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC), Reverend Sam Ikpea has urged the Amaju Pinnick led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to go for a coach with pedigree, who will be ready to reside in the country.

Recall that NFF has shortlisted four foreign coaches namely; former Barcelona manager, Ernesto Valverde, former France coach, Laurent Blanc, former PSV Eindhoven manager, Phillip Cocu and former Venezuala manager, Jose Peseiro with one out of them as a possible replacement for coach Augustine Eguavoen, who was sacked in March following the Super Eagles failure to qualify for the finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar made possible by the Black Stars of Ghana.

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Rev. Ikpea, who spoke while reacting to a question on the right coach to take charge of the Super Eagles ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers, noted that hiring a coach that will reside outside Nigeria will be very counterproductive for the Super Eagles.

According to him the success of the 1994 Super Eagles squad, as well as the 1998 team, was down to the fact that the head coach then, Clemence Westerhof resided in the country and had time to visit the various league centres in the country where he had the luxury of picking quality local players that went ahead to form the bedrock of the national team.

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“ As the Cote d’Ivoire 2023 AFCON qualifies approaches, there is need to hire a technical adviser who will not only reside here but believe in our home-based players. I believe that if we camp our home-based players for close to two months ahead of the qualifiers, there is no way we’ll not qualify for next year’s AFCON finals because the players will be hungry to make name for themselves.

“We all saw how great the 1994 Super Eagles squad was. It was so because Clemence Westerhof resided here and was given the free hand to build a strong team with a strong base from the domestic league. So if the NFF wants to return Nigeria’s football to its glory years we’ve to hire a quality coach who will be willing to live in the country and have time to scout for players from our domestic league and not depend 100 per cent on foreign-based Super Eagles,” he said.
“ Nigeria is a big country and nothing stops us from camping 100 to 200 gifted players from our domestic league for two years or more. When this is done, by the time you bring them out to play, they’ve already understood themselves, know the body language of each other and will play as a team and I can bet you, with this system, we’ll get another crop of 1994 Super Eagles,” Rev. Ikpea added.