Golden Eaglets’ silver-winning coach at the 2009 FIFA U17 World Cup that was hosted by Nigeria, John Obuh has highlighted several implications that could arise from the inability of once heroic tactician, Manu Garba to qualify for this year’s editions of the African championship as well as Cadet Mundial.
Sports247 reports that a 2-0 loss to Ghana in Tuesday’s semi-final of the West African Football Union (WAFU)-B U17 Championship means the Eaglets have not qualified for the continental qualifiers in a consecutive sequence and, by extension, they will not be at the FIFA showpiece for the second edition running.
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However, in his assessment of the sad development, which came less than 24 hours to Nigeria’s 65th Independence Day anniversary, Obuh warned against any hasty decision that could lead to the sack of Garba, who won the 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup in United Arab Emirates and reached the round of 16 at Brazil 2019.
Obuh also pointed out that the technical department of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should review the role they played in lending support or not to the tactician, who he advised to write a full and factual report about challenges he might have faced en route to the competition in Cote d’Ivoire.
He added, “You have to submit your technical report. In the past, the NFF usually attached one of their members into the team and made sure he brought information back, in case there were any challenges for the coach. But, recently, that has not been so.
“At the same time, the technical director is always involved in trying to make sure he is part of those who will shoulder a little bit of the responsibility in terms of selection and giving the coach advice. They normally have a lot of people around the team working together.”
Obuh, who also coached the Flying Eagles at the 2011 FIFA U20 World Cup in Colombia and is now the chairman of Abia Warriors FC of Umuahia, further inferred that the next fate that may befall Garba is that he would be sacked and all the players discarded, because of their inability to reach the African cadet championship.
He projected, “By the time it is over, the problem we have most of the time is that, once the competition did not end well, everything about the team would be forgotten, and nobody wants to talk about it anymore.
“The next thing you would probably hear is that the coach has been fired because of the result; but they don’t know that’s not the way it works.”
The smooth-talking tactician-turned-administrator concluded by urging Garba to write a detailed and true account of everything he faced in the build-up to the sub-regional championship in Yamoussoukro, while also urging the NFF’s technical egg heads to do an unbiased review to avoid repeating any lapses that might have caused this year’s failure.
“Once the coach finishes the tournament, they should read through his technical report and review the tournament properly.
“At the same time, what the coach puts in his report to explain his failure is what people will hear, but so many of these coaches will not write the facts,” Obuh lamented curtly.
