THURSDAY COLUMN – EAGLE EYE Manu, Amuneke, Amoo… Congratulations, felicitations, celebrations, accolades for the coaching trio of Garba Manu, Fatai Folorunsho Amoo and Emmanuel Amuneke over confirmations of their recent appointments to carry the banner as head of technical crews in their respective new postings with various levels of the Nigerian youth national teams. Step out for recognition, Manu Garba, immediate past head coach of the Golden Eaglets and winner of the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup in United Arab Emirates (UAE), who will now take over the mantle of tinkering Nigeria’s under-20 squad, Flying Eagles, while one of his assistants in the glorious cadet selection of the past year, Emmanuel Amuneke takes over the schoolboys’ side as head coach. Step out for recognition Emmanuel Amuneke, immediate past assistant coach of the Eaglets, former handler of Julius Berger FC of Lagos and Ocean Boys FC of Brass, Bayelsa State, holder of a class-A coaching license from Spain, African Footballer of the Year 1994, gold medal winning member of the Super Eagles’ squad to Tunisia ’94 Nations Cup, gold medalist with Dream Team 1 at Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games and former player of FC Barcelona of Spain. Step out for recognition, Fatai Folorunsho Amoo, amiable, calm, cool, collected and modest ex-international-turned-gaffer, who now steps in as handler of the under-23 squad, fondly called Dream Team, following years of cutting his teeth in the tacticians’ trade, first in charge of Lagos-based First Bank FC, before venturing into top clubs like Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Enyimba International of Aba and Sunshine Stars of Akure, as well as a stint as an assistant to Shaibu Amodu in the Super Eagles’ crew that qualified Nigeria for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Without any fear of contradiction, the above data for each of the three coaches shows that they really deserve their appointments and I can easily stick out my neck with declarations that they have what it takes to succeed; especially from the point that I am familiar with them all on personal levels, mostly in terms of their developmental efforts with young players and youth squads that I have been in contact with over the years. Ordinarily, I would have thought now is the time for me to revive those connections of yore that saw me recommend not less than ten kids to the 2001 Golden Eaglets at the outset of their camping programme in in Kaduna under Coach Hassan Abubakar; as well as the more recent links I was able to give Seyi Adeleke and Nnamdi Oduamadi to late Yemi Tella’s team in 2007. However, that process has been taken over by a ‘maddening crowd’ and prone to high levels of bandwagon effects, to the extent that coaches in Nigeria’s youth teams have been distracted to a large extent by letters of recommendation and phone calls of appeal from several personalities, stakeholders, associates, scouts, agents, club owners and other well-wishers, all with the same intention of getting one lad or another into the camp. That same line of pressure is sure to come for Amoo, Amuneke and Garba in their latest calls to duty. I do not envy them in terms of the extraneous challenges they are sure to come up against, but I dare say that is where the real cutting edge between a credible coach and a wannabe (coachito) comes to play, considering that the wordsmith says uneasy lies the head that wears the crown … but nothing good comes easy. So, I beg to borrow from Tai Solarin and declare to this threesome “May Your Road Be Rough,” knowing full that the tripod assignments ahead of them can never be treated like child’s play, especially with the Flying Eagles and Dream Team, which have both failed to make Nigerians smile in recent time. The task now before Amoo is to ensure the under-23 squad not only make it to next year’s All Africa Games and the Olympics in 2016, but to also win both titles, while Manu will have to replicate his heroics from the cadet level into the youth cadre and ensure Nigeria wins the next FIFA U-20 World Cup, as Amuneke has to show that he learnt a lot at UAE 2013 and is capable of ensuring Nigeria becomes only the second country in history (after Brazil) to win the cup back-to-back. Tough challenges before the troika, no doubt, but something tells me they are all up to the task.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 15:57:16 +0000
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