Will A Lack Of Spies Sink Super Falcons War Efforts?
It is a well known practice in the world of combat for oppositions to spy on each others capabilities in order to identify weaknesses to exploit, thereby bringing about the downfall of their foes.
Sadly, of late, I have become accustomed to reading articles after articles of how rival coaches defeated Nigeria. "How We Defeated The Super Eagles/Falcons" headlines followed painful losses against the following opponents in the last 2 years: Ghana, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau and Tunisia, to mention but a few.
We have gathered more of those headlines than trophies recently; how the mighty has fallen.
Anyway, one common thread in those revelations was how those teams studied Nigeria to identify our weaknesses which they claimed to exploit to bring to bear our downfall.
Now, the Super Falcons' unhappy boss Randy Waldrum has claimed that the NFF has not equipped him with Reconnaissance Spies.
"Why don’t I have an analyst, why don’t we have scouts (to spy on opponents?” asked Randy in a highly publicised YouTube interview recently.
Unfortunately, the lady who can help him do exactly that has been allegedly banned from the camp by the NFF.
"I don’t sit around and wait," said erstwhile assistant Lauren Gregg, "for example, I gave Randy a report for Canada already,” she stated.
“None of the other coaches there have done it. I have spent 20-30 hours analyzing multiple games of Canada to help them get ready for their first game. And I’m probably not even going.” She concluded.
It has been anything but a conventional preparation for the Super Falcons ahead of this World Cup. Months of pent up grievances for all parties - players, coaches and NFF - appear to be coming to the fore.
At least, on the training pitch, Personal Trainer Kyle Quigley appears to have his focus intact as the ladies continue to train tirelessly. Yesterday, the sight of seeing two groups of Falcons, one in red and the other in blue tops, wheezing across the screen in their training sessions was reassuring.
Also reassuring was my investigation that showed that group opponents Canada and Australia last played friendly matches in April, the same month Nigeria played two friendlies in Turkey.
In fact, Canada (who have had their own crisis this year over funding cuts, wage disparity with their male counterparts and inadequate training facilities) only just released their final list for the World Cup over the weekend.
So, Nigeria doesn't have monopoly of crisis, ours are just unique and rooted in a dilapidated football infrastructure.
Randy will just have to do it without spies and analysts if the NFF fails to provide him with these. How far the team can go in this tournament is anyone's guess.
But we fans haven't given up on this team despite all the administrative and financial turmoil. Hopefully they too won't give up on themselves.
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