Human wants. Always insatiable!
When it’s hot, some like it cold, when it’s cold, some like it hot. Always looking for what is not.
These words were pasted on the office walls of my project supervisor, Dr. Olarenwaju Babatunde Smith (he later became a professor) at the then University of Ife in Ile-Ife many years ago.
Today those words still play on my mind each time I remember Nigerian football fans who are in their millions today.
These fans always want the Super Eagles to win matches even when they don’t believe in their ability before they go into any football battle.
Before the 2019 Africa Nations Cup (AFCON) in Egypt, the Super Eagles, then handled by Gernot Rohr played very uninspiring football but always managed to grind out results.
They had qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup which Russia hosted. They lost to Argentina in the second round in a match they could have won if they were tactically disciplined.
Nigerian fans were not satisfied with the technical prowess of the coach nor his tactical approach which they said cost the team the match and ouster from the World Cup. And they began the clamour for his sack. His employers, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF would not agree. They believed he had a subsisting contract and therefore wanted it to run out.
That was why they allowed him to stay on and prosecute the 2019 AFCON. Yet the Super Eagles still didn’t inspire hope among their Nigerian fans.
Their Humpty Dumpty run finally ended in the semi final when a Riyad Mahrez propelled Desert Foxes of Algeria beat them 2-1. Despite their bronze winning effort, calls for Rohr’s sack began, with many saying that he wasn’t good enough to tinker the team any longer.
The NFF foot dragged until very close to the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon when he was eventually disengaged and Austin Eguavoen was drafted to take his place. Albeit temporarily.
Eguavoen and his squad dazzled in the group stage, recording a hundred percent and scooping the maximum nine points from three matches.
Hopes were high that the team will go places in the competition. When they were paired with Tunisia who qualified as one of the best losers, many thought the quarter finals ticket was assured. Alas their hopes went up in smoke as a more tactical Tunisian side needed a well taken free kick from a reasonably safe distance to beat a badly positioned Maduka Okoye with a solitary goal. That poor outing with the loss of the 2022 World Cup ticket weeks later got Eguavoen booted out.
An unknown quantity in football coaching, Jose Peseiro was recruited and Nigerians were told it was on the recommendation of the self-styled ‘Special One’, Jose Mourinho.
Unlike Mourinho, football followers never saw any discernible style of play the new Portuguese introduced into the team as they began to jerk from match to match, both in friendly and competitive ones.
Again the cry for a change resonated and the NFF, now under a new Sheriff, Ibrahim Gusau, thought he should be disengaged. The country was shocked when the NFF said Peseiro had agreed to a cut in salary and would therefore extend his contract till after the 2023 AFCON in 2024 which he qualified for, losing only one game to Guinea-Bissau.
Despite being in a group that also had Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea, fans’ morale was low. They believed the Super Eagles would not qualify from the group with host Cote d’Ivoire declared the clear favourites. Their fears were almost confirmed from the first match against Equatorial Guinea who
scored first before the team’s Trojan horse, Victor Osimhen equalized with an inch perfect header.
From that point on, Peseiro’s defensive pattern of ‘parking the bus’ in the mold of his compatriot, Mourinho manifested.
At least Nigerians were beginning to see a pattern from the team even though it produced pensive moments for them. Like they say, half bread is better than none.
There were others who still didn’t believe that Peseiro had found an answer to his unimpressive football despite grinding out results which came a cost, high blood pressure for fans with very weak hearts.
Despite the nail-biting wins, many of Peseiro’s new converts never knew that he had no plan B in case he met a brick wall in any team whose coach has a superior tactic or has studied his pattern very well.
And so after surviving Bafana Bafana of South Africa on penalties in a grueling encounter that cost a couple of Nigerians their lives, Peseiro was already dreaming of lifting the AFCON on his debut.
More so that he was meeting the host whom he had defeated 1-0 earlier on. Again the Ivorian team had changed their coach after losing two group matches. Peseiro was confident but the Ivorians were determined never to fall to the Eagles again for the second time in the same competition on home soil.
The caretaker coach and former Elephants player, Emerse Fae dug deep, studied the Nigerian side and plotted a strategy to run them out of gas, because according to him, he saw that they were already tired, especially after the grueling semi final clash against South Africa.
And it worked for him, coming from a goal down to win 2-1 and equal the Super Eagles’ three AFCON wins.
Suddenly, the same pessimistic fans, including the Sports Minister, John Enoh are now singing a new tune, that Peseiro should be given some more time like Clemens Westerhof was given before he started winning. Blowing hot and cold.
But they forgot that during Westehof’s era, the Super Eagles were not playing hypertensive football. They entertained fans that even FIFA had to award them the most entertaining team at the 1994 World Cup.