By Our Correspondent
A cross section of Nigeria football followers including seasoned sports journalists have bemoaned the lacklustre performance of the Flying Eagles at the ongoing Poland U-20 World Cup and called for a revamp of the team and its technical crew
The followers who expressed their views in various social media platforms including Whatsapp and Twitter, questioned the commitment of the players and the capacity of the coaching crew in the overall performance of the team at the championship.
Flying Eagles yesterday lost to fellow Africans, Senegal by 2-1 to crash out of the championship at the round of 16.
This is the 6th time the team is crashing out at the knockout stage of the competition out of 7th qualifications in recent times. Hence the views expressed by these Nigerians reflect the lacuna within the team.
Reacting to the results on the @thenff Twitter handle, Anthony Ade said “To be honest Nigeria never got it right at the u20 level. Since 2005 final appearance. We just cant find the right quality set of players to execute that age range.”
Abijo Segun said “We actually played way better in the second half.wasn’t a bad game just lacked the cutting edge and finish. Heads up for Okon and Makanjuola for me
Ajey IK @Ik_of_today “Nff should be blamed for giving coach Paul this job. That man is not technical at all. This is the worst U20 ever.”
The reactions on Whatsapp groups are not overtly different.
According to Moomeen Tourshaw “This clueless Paul Aigbogun is the reason Manu Garba was sacked. What difference did he make? NFF is too political these day (days). I keep saying it that our grassroots teams should be led by grassroot coaches
Jerry Odung warned about the same fate visiting the Olympic team and advised “Another disaster waiting to happen is the under 23 team coached by Imama. Nigerian teams do well with coaches who were renown (renowned) in their playing days. Bring in siasia now for Olympics before it’s too late. This local coaches with no experience have nothing to offer
“Flying Eagles class of 2019 is the worst ever U20 team I have ever seen.
“It was a disgrace seeing the old men paraded as U20 dent the nation’s football status
“What hurts most is that we have a set standard at this level of FIFA World Cup and if we could not surpass the standard we should at least maintain the standard,” Prince Told Atoba said
Adewale Ajayi who is known for his outspokenness concerning Nigeria football was sarcastic in his view “Nigeria men, Russia 2018 we went out in second round. Poland 2019 we went out (in) second Round
“Now see what jedijedi is doing to our men. They cant go more than two rounds.
“Hope our girls will prove us wrong in France and show the world that Nigeria women are good on grass and can do more than two rounds. We are watching.”
Another Whatsappuser with the name Luther, said “The Nff need to re-evaluate how they appoint these coaches.
“I am of the opinion that (they) should try and check the antecedents of these coaches in terms of playing career and for those who were not Ex-players they must ensure that they have served as assistant to other national team coaches. You don’t buy experience in the market.
“And to forestall unhealthy rivalry where assistant coaches wishes the head coach bad luck so that they can take over or an assistant coach turns gossip because is (his) loyalty is to the administrators who appointed him, I suggest the head should be allowed to choose his assistant as musketeers, if they succeed they are together and if they fail they are all in the ship.
