The head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro is currently under huge pressure for the team to meet expectations at next month Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
His short term deal with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will expire after the tournament but it will be extended if he leads the team to at least the final of the tournament.
In the build up to the tournament, the team has lost 60 percent of the games played since the Portuguese was made coach of the team, and more revelations has now been made about how he has handled the team in the period under review.
After securing passage to the AFCON, the coach started the process of building a team for the AFCON and took a drastic decision to axe six senior players from the team, with some even kicked out of the squad entirely.
In defence, the first casualty was the two vice captain of the team in William Troost-Ekong ans Kenneth Omeruo, It’s started with the coach dropping the duo to the bench before kicking Ekong out totally but kept Omeruo as a squad player.
Captain Ahmed Musa wasn’t spared as well and unless a late change of mind he won’t be in the team to the Africa Cup of Nations, while he had his way with the above mentioned trio, the idea backfired with certain senior players in the team.
Peseiro also dropped Moses Simon to the bench in preference for Ademola Lookman but after two poor performances from the Atalanta man he brought Simon back.
Simon hasn’t looked back since his return as a regular and he is now one of the key players heading into the AFCON. A similar situation played out with the duo of Ola Aina and Wilfred Ndidi.
He twice subbed Ndidi off at the break during games but couldn’t ignore his form at Leicester City hence a recall to the team. It was the same case with Ola Aina who forced his way back into the manager’s plan with impressive performances for West Ham.
Ade Emmanuel
