Afcon: Chukwu says Peseiro can’t win it for Nigeria
Afcon: Chukwu says Peseiro can’t win it for Nigeria
Former Nigeria coach Christian Chukwu has told Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro, to forget about the dream of winning the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cote d’Ivoire.
Speaking on the chances of the Super Eagles at Afcon, Chukwu advised the national coach, Peseiro to change his style and focus more on discovering local football talents.
He also called on him to relocate to and live fully in Nigeria to discover from the local league the right budding players that will get him results rather than relying completely on foreign-based players.
The former Super Eagles and Kenyan coach said it would be a daydream for Peseiro to visit the country play matches and leave like the foreign players who hurry back to their clubs after every national assignment and have a successful career in Nigeria.
“You can’t come in on Wednesday or Thursday, train on Friday, play on Saturday, and return to your base on Sunday and expect to build a team that can win Africa. It might not be possible,” he coached.
The Nigerian legend gave the advice when he was featured in the Channels TV Sunday sports program on December 10.
He suggested that “the coach should live in Nigeria and build a team base before inviting foreign players to the senior national team. He should not be coaching Nigeria Super Eagles from abroad like the foreign-based players.
We have plenty of talents in the Nigerian local league which he must tap into, discover them, and build a formidable team that we can rely on. I am afraid that with this present team and the structure that is more ad hoc, we should not expect to win next year.”
Chukwu further said: “The reason Clemence Westerhof remains the coach of reference is because he built the home team that won Africa from within Nigeria. It is from those players he discovered that we started having a strong foreign players’ pool. The present coach has no alternative to doing the same because that is the only way we can have a team and expect to win Africa and the world.”
