AFCON 2021: Augustine Eguavoen --------Mind the Gap 

The major obstacle between Super Eagles interim coach Augustine Eguavoen and success at the 2021 AFCON may not be the quality of players at his disposal or the quality of opposing teams. The main impediment maybe his nice disposition and the quality of his backroom staff Olukayode Thomas reports

Introduction

Between 2000 when he began his management career with Sliema Wanderers of Malta and his appointment as Super Eagles interim coach last month Augustine Eguavoen has managed 14 teams.

From club sides at home and abroad to junior national teams to the senior national team, to being appointed the Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Eguavoen has seen it all.

With a playing career that also spans over two decades, his enormous practical experiences in football cannot be bought on the shelf.

Eguavoen has also experienced all the emotions that come with football, either as a player or coach. 

 The joy of winning a football match as a player and the bitter taste of defeat. The happiness and celebration that follows appointment as a coach, winning and losing a match as a coach. 

The feeling when the media and fans are calling for your sack after a bad day in the office and the emotion when you hear about your sack on the radio or read about it in newspapers before your employer calls you to tell the news that is no longer news to the world.

From Siberia to Summer 

After many years in the cold, Eguavoen is now back as the darling of

stakeholders in Nigeria football especially players’ agents and managers who will be recommending their clients to him.

After over two decades as a manager, Eguavoen needs not to be told that his new friends are just friends of office, they are shrewd businessmen who will dump him like hot potatoes once his status changes and move on with the next manager.

Will Eguavoen be discerning to see through these men, probably yes but most probably no.

A gentleman who welcomes all and sundry with a smile and tries to please them. I have known Eguavoen since his playing days for ACB Football Club. He is just a nice guy who wants to please everybody-this may be his undoing in his new assignment.

Back then when football was crude, the days of if you miss the ball don’t miss the leg. 

Eguavoen played gentleman football as a defender. He was not a defender like Bright Omokaro aka 10/10, Sunny Ebohigbe or his brother Monday Eguavoen.

Enforcing dos and don’ts 

Almost all the players that will make Eguavoen’s final list are top professionals who know more than the basics about football, so it’s not skills or lack of it that will determine their success in Cameroon rather it is Eguavoen’s ability to enforce his do’s and don’ts.

Inability to wield the stick and maintain discipline in camp was alleged to be one of the reasons why Genort Rohr failed.

 Most of today’s players who are swimming in cash are faced with distractions from friends of both sexes who will encourage them to try a new restaurant or a nightclub. Social media is another distraction.

Eguavoen must realize that coaches that succeed today are those that have zero tolerance for indiscipline like Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho, Diego Simeone, Jurgen Klopp, Louis van Gaal and a few others who strictly enforce the rule. 

Jack Grealish and Philip Foden did not play the Manchester City match against Leicester City last Sunday because they went out when they should be sleeping.

Eguavoen must let the players know they are not bigger than the team nor are they indispensable. Nice coaches hardly win trophies or succeed.

Quality of backroom staff

The backroom staff of any national team in FIFA top 50 must include an assistant manager that is as good as the manager, a chief analyst, fitness coach, conditioning coach, psychologist, nutritionist, physiotherapist, masseur and others who have been exposed to football at the highest level.

Apart from Joseph Yobo, who though has limited coaching experience, but have been exposed to working under top coaches and playing at the highest level and Aloysius Agu the goalkeeper trainer, who was a former Super Eagles goalkeeper and vastly experienced, most of Eguavoen staff do not have the experience of either playing or coaching players that are the level of today’s Super Eagles. 

Salisu Yusuf Eguavoen’s Chief Coach does not have the experience of either playing or coaching at the highest level, his best is the Nigeria Football League.

When uproar greeted his recall to the Super Eagles recently,  a section of the media justified his recall and said the Genort Rohr team were wobbling and fumbling because Salisu was missing. 

When the messiah Salisu joined Rohr, the team performance was worse. That he has a credibility problem makes him an easy target for the media, especially journalists from countries that our boys will be playing against.

Imagine what the English reporters will do if the Super Eagles are playing England with Salisu as our Chief Coach.  

 Paul Aigbogun an assistant coach playing career is limited to the lower categories of American football, not even the MLS where European footballers retire to.

His coaching experiences too were also in lower clubs in America. He had brief spells with Warri Wolves and Enyimba before he was invited to manage the national junior football team. Like Salisu, he was also accused of accepting money for shirts.

Terry Eguaoje, another assistant coach is well-read and has certificates but the experience of working at the national team level is lacking. Preparation for major championships is not for budding and collegiate coaches, it is serious business.

The appointment of Augustine ‘Jay’ Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu and Garba Lawal as technical and ambassadorial support for the team is cheap politics by Amaju Pinnick.'

Eguavoen should talk now remain silent forever

God forbid if the Super Eagles team should fail in Cameroon, Amaju and NFF will distance themselves from Eguavoen the way they did to Rohr and claim they gave him all he needed to succeed. 

Eguavoen should learn from the recent fall of Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. 

When the team failed to deliver the expected results, Solskjaer was the first person to lose his job. His assistants, most of whom are not his choice, stayed after his sack only for some like Michael Carrick to resign after a new manager was named.

Eguavoen needs to speak out now. This is not the time to be nice or be a gentleman. If players are being imposed on him he should speak out, if he is not happy with the quality of the backroom staff imposed on him by Amaju and NFF he should let the world know that he needs better hands. 

Giving excuses after a mishap in Cameroon, God forbid, will be medicine after death.  So Eguavoen --- mind the gaps between success and failure in Cameroon. 

PULL QUOTE: Eguavoen must realize that coaches that succeed today are those that have zero tolerance for indiscipline like Pep Guardiola,

PULL QUOTE: Most of Eguavoen staff do not have the experience of either playing or coaching players that are the level of today’s Super Eagles.