The NFF are currently in negotiations with underwhelming coach Jose Peseiro who is currently out of contract after it expired in June.
Speaking to journalists recently, Technical Director of the NFF Austin Eguavoen said: " At the moment Peseiro is still in charge of the team, we are discussing in-house (on his contract extension) and we are giving him conditions as well,” he stressed.
Peseiro now has the chance to prove himself.
If indeed he signs a new contract, for me, he will be starting with a clean slate. Although his first period in the job was chaotic with poor games-to-win ratio, he still managed to qualify Nigeria for the Afcon with a game to spare.
His 4-4-2 formation with emphases of quick turnaround, just-in-time transition, one touch football and all-out attacking philosophy are yet to deliver the goods across many levels which have left him being unpopular with a large base of Nigeria fans. But he has shown willingness to work with NFF's chaotic way of running our football which is more than many high profile coaches out there will be willing to tolerate.
He works without being paid for months whilst kowtowing to their demands in player selections by incorporating homebase players. That said, Peseiro is popular with the foreign based players as many of them have lent their weight to his continuation as their coach.
Nigeria need to start strongly in the world cup qualifiers whilst also making a strong statement in the Afcon next year.
I hope they put a clause in his contract to be able to speedily relieve him of his services in the event of a lukewarm Afcon showing and underwhelming results in the first 2 world cup qualifiers.
I am all for Peseiro staying on until after the Afcon next year at the very least. But I admit that this position is not popular with the wider Super Eagles fanbase as his brand of football is not right up their street.
But I think the Portuguese gaffer should be given the chance to at least lead the team to the Afcon tournament he qualified them for. All the times we sacked coaches who qualified us for tournaments, it had never gone well.