Coach of Watford Claudio Ranieri has explained that the decision of Emmanuel Dennis to pull out of the squad of the senior national team of Nigeria for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
He revealed that the board of Watford and that of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) held talks over the release of the player for the tournament which starts in January.
As first reported by this portal one month ago, the forward who has seven goals for Watford this season in the English Premier League isn’t keen on representing Nigeria at the AFCON after a fall out with ex coach Gernot Rohr.
He had issues with the coach after the 4-4 draw against Sierra Leone during the course of the qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations. Rohr still included him in his preliminary list for the tournament on account of his form before he was sacked.
According to Ranieri, as much as Dennis wanted to play for Nigeria at the tournament, the forward who is the top scorer of the English Premier League side also saw the need to help Watford more appealing. Hence his decision.
Ranieri said the issue was now resolved and that the player was now focused on Watford’s relegation battle.
“I knew they were speaking the board and Nigerian board and I accept every decision they find, for me it’s finished,” he said.
“They have a lot of players and they changed the manager and they changed everything. We were ready to give them the players, but they didn’t do this. The two boards spoke and for me it’s okay, I’m only the coach and I accept everything.
“Now I spoke with him, of course he wanted to go to play, but also he wanted to help Watford.”
Asked if the club were being disrespectful towards the international tournament, Ranieri simply said: “No. We respect everybody.”
