Former Kwara United coach, Samson Unuanel believes the appointment of Finidi George as the Super Eagles head coach will help the development of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
Finidi, who will take over from Jose Peseiro after leading Nigeria to the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, where the team lost 2-1 to Ivory Coast, will be saddled with the responsibility of qualifying the Super Eagles to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Reacting to his appointment, Unuanel told Completesports.com that Finidi has done enough to merit the job.
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He also revealed that the former Ajax star will look towards picking some best talents in the NPFL.
“I want to congratulate Finidi George for his appointment as Super Eagles job.
“He has done enough to merit the position going by what he has done with Enyimba and the experience garnered as an assistant under Jose Peseiro.”
“I believe his appointment will have direct impact on the NPFL players because for some time now the local based players have not been giving enough opportunity to prove their worth in the Super Eagles.”
15 Comments
Even if na great appointment for NPFL, make una NPFL players level up dia standard B4 thinking of Supa eagles place.
Una think say national team dey make league wen na d oda way round.
Na y we no dey grow 4 dis country be dis yeye thinking ideology.
What does he mean by NPFL players have not been given enough opportunity to prove their worth in the SE?
If they are not the best we have, should they be forced into the team just because they are home based?
This Unuanel of a guy. No be today he begin yarn opata.
No problem. Finidi should kuku carry the NPFL on his head and be hawking them around like groundnut.
My broda I wonder o wetin we no go see 4 dis country npfl dis npfl dat….if he like make him carry nnl join na hand wey work dey chop.
Kel,
Another World Exclusive from Unuanel. Hahaha
Hahahaha. But it’s not complete o. We have yet to read CSN’s “World Exclusives” from Dosu, Garba, Babangida, etc., on why the Super Eagles must not underrate the Squirrels of Benin, for example.
“What he has done at Enyimba.” Well, not bad. But not impressive enough. Both Okey Emordi and Kadiri Ikhana won the CAF Champions League in less than 2 years (I think) with the same club. And these were not even considered for any national team jobs.
I have my fears for Finidi, but we keep hope up. His former boss struggled against SA, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho. Then what should we expect from him? Can he do better? Only if he had been impressive on the continent with Enyimba. Only Rivers United did something tangible, though not enough.
Kel,
I really wish Finidi well. Even if he fails, I will bear no grudge against him. He was “installed” as the head coach. If it were you or me in the same situation, will we reject such a plum job given to us on a platter of green gold?
But, Finidi is out of his depth to be honest but that is not enough to conclude that failure is imminent.
No, not at all.
I genuinely think that Finidi will stop at nothing to repay the faith of those who simply gifted him a job he was not at all qualified for.
Good luck to him. I love him.
I like the way you always “waste” your faith when you really do not need to.
Finidi’s first season as Enyimba’s coach was their worst in over 2 decades…they finished midtable in the league and ended the season trophyless.
His second season saw Eyimba finish joint 3rd on the league table in the regular season with 2 other clubs, but managed to make the super 6 because they had a better goal difference, thanks to some phoney high-scoring home wins in the last games of the regular season. At the Super 6, he won 2 games out of 5 to be declared league winner
In the CAF Champions league he didn’t win any match….Enyimba was booted out at the very first hurdle by a team that neither made it to the group stage of the CAF CL nor made it out of its group in the CAF CC
Enyimba was smuggled into the inaugural African football league via the back door, again, Finidi and his Enyimba team did not win 1 match in the AFL.
In the current season Finidi’s Enyimba is sitting in 3rd place in the league and isn’t looking like will be able to displace Fidelis Ilechukuwu’s Enugu Rangers from 1st position, nor Daniel Ogunmodede’s Remo from 2nd, with Gbenga Ogunbote’s Shooting Stars and Eddy Dombraye’s Lobi stars chasing closely in 4th & 5th respectively, level on points with Enyimba.
What am I saying, this man is handling practically the richest, most stable, most well managed and most accomplished club in Nigeria and yet…..????
Honestly, I really want to be confident in FInidi, both in the short term and in the long term….but I am struggling to. I cant find any foundations to lay my confidence on….not in the results of his club career nor the results of the 2 friendlies he’s overseen as SE coach so far. All together, Finidi has a total of 3 years of senior coaching experience. A total green horn handling the deadliest job in African football.
There is more to be deflated about than to be confident about on this particular appointment made by the NFF
I still don’t understand this kind of mindset our people have. Can those clamoring for NPFL players name at least two stand out players who have been consistent for the past two seasons,not only in the local league but also in CAF organized competitions? They keep mentioning the past,those who are stuck with the past will remain in the past. There is a lot of upgrading to do in the local league .
When the late Stephen Keshi selected Oboabona and co. from our local clubs, our home league was in better shape and so was producing active footballers. But the story is different today! The current league set up is in a mess.
And, by the way, there is no shame in selecting your players from foreign leagues! Brazil does it (most of their players are in European clubs).
The clamour for home based players is made by people who want to use the Super Eagles to market their home boys to the same foreign leagues they despise to much.
Hmmmm good for the NPFL….because it is Finidi who will make MPFL players good enough to now start powering NPFL teams to the semifinals (at least) of CAF Club competitions right…? Or maybe he will be the one to now make them good enough to win CHAN….after all, one idiot here still argues till today that it is in the national team basics of football such as ‘ball control’ is taught.
Ayoub Elkaabi, the Olympiakos striker who scored a hat trick against Aston Villa 2 days ago in the UECL semifinals was a member of the Morrocan CHAN team we lost to in the 2018 CHAN. If my memory serves me well, he scored in that final. 6 years later he is still playing at the top level and of course an integral part of the Morrocan national team even though he’s not a starter despite his quality. I doubt if any of the players we took to that CHAN (bar Rabiu ALi) is even still playing football today, talk more of playing at the highest level. I also doubt if any of them made it to Europe or made it in Europe.
This time around they are not even qualifying for CHAN yet, talk more of reaching the final of CHAN, while their clubs struggle to reach the group phase of the club competitions, but they must be quota-ed into the Super Eagles anyways…at a time some quality performers playing in Europe haven’t even gotten a chance with the national team yet.
As they say, handing them free visas into the SE will make them better players (just like that)….LMAOoo. I have not seen any country in the world that uses its national team to develop local league players.
I don’t pity Finidi if he wants to use these WCQ as his experimentation ground for homebased players in the SE. I don’t. Afterall, he was never in contention for the job he now has. According to Deo above, it was just trusted in his arms on a platter of gold to shame the Sport Minister.
Can you just believe it? We want to be seen to be serious in our world cup qualification and Afcon success and we employ Finidi!!
Me I love Finidi sha and will always pray he succeeds but this appointment is a joke on behalf of NFF.
Finidi hasn’t done anything wrong. I think he will apply himself with devotion, dedication and determination. I think it’s a mistake to just write him off despite how dubious the appointment itself is.
Finidi is our coach, there is no going back from that. So I support him wholeheartedly and wish him all the luck in the world.
So, the NFF, Nigerian football brand is not viable enough to generate the funds needed for a more suitably qualified coach?
If Finidi George is all we can afford, we all better rally round to support him the best we can. He should find and fulfil his destiny!
To be honest, I will be very surprised should Finidi build his team around homebased players. Of course he will probably invite one or two, like Rohr and Peseiro did. But once he sees how subpar they are vis a vis the foreign continents, he will send the homebased packing without so much of a wave goodbye.
Finidi I think yearns for success. Unless he genuinely sees requisite quality in homebased players, he will never settle for second best no matter who is pushing him to invite these players.
It will be wrong and most unfair to smear Finidi, he hasn’t done anything wrong. Let’s give him a chance to prove himself however dissatisfied/disappointed we might be of the appointment.
Ofcourse the onus is on him to produce results which’ll impact his decision making on certain players’ selection.
But you can’t overlook the facts stated by the good doctor plus despite being an ardent Finidi supporter, I had doubts because ive been privileged to watch Enyimba games live and I can confirm what @deo said about a lack of compression of the ball and multi dimensional attack mechanisms on the ball, his Enyimba are a simplistic,one dimensional outfit known for its split striker runs and wingplay overload with a passive retreat based approach out of possession.
Elite level or even top level managers tend to limit space between the lines both horizontally and vertically because the central column of the pitch is the most important area of the pitch.
Despite being a man down Ghana constantly found space to exploit when they had possession before the second goal killed any confidence they mustered.
Against a well drilled Mali team (who I know very well) there were gaps in the middle that made their midfielders tear through ours like a bulldozer mowing down a wall made of cardboard paper.
Even his Enyimba team have always struggled to beat more organized teams like Rangers and Remo,they couldn’t even beat Coal city UTD in Enugu in a friendly an NNL promoted side.
I sincerely hope he does well at the SE but I have a feeling we might miss out on the upcoming WC due to the ever mediocre NFF decision making and other factors within the coaching angle of the team.
He hasn’t done anything wrong accept he lost to Mali who has not beaten Nigeria in the past 49 years of football. Why did Finidi invited Tella all the way from
Germany only to sit him on the Bench for the duration of the entire march? As Dr Drey rightly described the Nigeria coach, Finidi George is a ‘rookie’ Look, forget all about the World cup.
@Edoman a Rookie who will even cripple any chances to save face as he will definitely heed to the calls of distractors and Bane of Super Eagles exixtense people such as this Unael guy. it is a shame CSN and Nigerian Outlets still give people like this voice. People don’t realise the thing that pains me the most is that a few years ago when Ivory COast and more recently Senegal were parading Young stars like Mane and Drogba and co We Nigeria’s were wishing to have have our players in SE become regular starters in thier eruopean clubs talkless of Players of that ilk , you all remember the Nigeria Super Eagles is full of Bench warmers… Now God has blessed us with a Golden Generation packed with Players of that Ilk and young Players with the Potentials to reach that ilk, and we have People like this Unael dude clamouring that we overlook them and Call up players that can not even win CAF Confed Cup talkless of Champions league players that cannot beat teams from Swaziland. Like what is really all this. Why Must Nigeria Be packed with such Ungratefull and Sabotage minded individuals.. It is SAD and This Finidi or any other 94 class know thee Gap of quality European Stars have over Local players because they chose to play in Europe to better thier Careers all of a sudden now they are Coaches they want to change the narritive and expect us to believe that In a Time when the Gap of European Clubs and African have even widdened deeper, NPFL are now all of a sudden more talented LOOOOOL!!!>> What arrand rubbish if not corruption?.. SAD man Really SAD and We should not stand for this Rubbish When We start see Gift Orban Nathan Tella change Alliegence to Togo and Bennin Respectively and Others e go relly clear. Indigenous Coaches will ruin our ball, The Fear I always had for Super Eagles is finally Here.
THis Golden Generation will fade to obscurity, SE will miss out of World Cup, Tella will choose England, NPFL Players will be Marketed through SE, Nigeria Will languish in 60’s to 100’s in FIFA we will loose more players as Super Eagles will not be considered a world Beater. No they will have what they want A Super Eagles that is there to Market below average players to Albania and Romanian Leagues because that is really the levels they can reach if we luck we may see a Etebo level player or Ighalo who had to go through trials and Tribulations to make it to the Likes of Watford if we lucky, Imperial Talented Academy talents will be overlooked because they never kicked a ball in NPFL went etaright from Youth National to Europes elite I.e Osimhen Boniface and Co typ players are not Nigerian enough remember according to Unael.. ..No it is messed up and will get worse