Jose Peseiro has penned a heartfelt message to Nigerians and the media for their remarkable support.
The Portuguese was in charge of the Super Eagles for 22 months before leaving the post.
Peseiro’s contract with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) expired last week.
The 63-year-old guided the Super Eagles to second position at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
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He took to the social media to express is appreciation to the fans and sporting press.
The gaffer also solicited for support for the Super Eagles.
“I want to thank all Nigerians and the entire press for the interest, support, and encouragement given to the Super Eagles while I was their coach. I would like to ask all of you to always support your players. These athletes give their all for the Super Eagles, taking pride in representing their country. The players make sacrifices to bring you joy,” Peseiro wrote on his X handle.
“The Super Eagles deserve all your support, which will be very important for the great challenges that lie ahead.”
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33 Comments
Thank you Jose Peseiro,You did your best and NFF would decide which way in the next few weeks
Thank you too you exceeded your ability I wish you well at your future endeavours. Nigeria will continue the search until we get our Mr Right.
It is almost guaranteed that Amunike is ahead of everybody to be the new coach of the Super Eagles.
Nonetheless, I don’t blame coach Paseiro at all, but NFF that have eyes but don’t see everything concerning Oga Paseiro.
In the concluded Afcon tournament, our players were very determined and desperate to win Afcon, this brings the best out of them to do more.
If we don’t believe in what I said, coach Paseiro should apply for a job somewhere else in Africa, maybe Tanzania, Lesotho, or Liberia to see if he can play another Afcon final.
I’m pretty sure he will struggle, just like Oga Rohr is struggling in Benin.
These half-baked foreign coaches are not better than our own. We are enslaved to make us believe that we blacks, most especially Africans, are not good at anything until we have the support of Oyinbo people.
We have to change that mentality, and it’s start now with Amunike or any local coach to be in charge of Super Eagles.
The five areas our own have to improve on are man management, standing their ground
when facing the NFF in terms of anything NFF throw at them, transparency and corruption. If NFF could say they would send oga Rohr to somewhere for improvement, then nothing is stopping the same NFF to training our own man management and other skills required to make our local coaches a lot easier.
I am so happy that it is our own turn. Let’s give them our support, Nigerians. Amunike is a wise man who can give Super Eagles and Nigerians what we have been waiting for.
The wise man is very smart, simple in his approach, very calm, intelligent, reliable, and dependable as a player and a coach, and in terms of man management, he’s topnotch. So what else do we want from a foreign coach that Amunike does not have?
I hope we all remember that Amunike discovered some young talented players in the Super Eagles currently.
No doubt, Mr. Wise man will improve Super Eagles because he knows where our talented players are, and I believe he won’t hesitate to give new players a chance. Please join me to welcome Amunike as the new coach of the Super Eagles!
Say no to foreign coaches because they are not better than our own. Our local coaches must be treated like foreign coaches so that the treatment will bring the best out of them. So, if it is not broken, then don’t fix it, NFF. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Yea, if its not broken don’t fix it. Oga Paseiro should be recalled for he knows the SE boys and how to get them work well as a team to win together. Nigeria will be courting trouble if they get any of the local available coaches. NFF better yig3 Paseiro a new contract for continuity and progress.
Would Amuneke dare to dream of benching Musa all through a tournament and let Ekong have the captain band? Would senior man have learnt how not to challenge his coach and remained on the bench, under his watch? He discovered this, and that player yen yen, if any flops, would he drop them? Anyway NFF can go with local coaches but if we decline from 28th to whatever levels, then…
Amunike will not invite Musa in the first place.
You tried sha.
For a coach that was being owed months of salaries, you did quite well. Beyond the expectations of many.
But your achilles heel is your rigid tactics. You stick to whatever formation is working, and fail to make adjustments when the opponent calls for it.
You reportedly copied Mourinho, but ignored an important part of the Mourinho template – a solid midfield.
Our solid defense kept us in the tournament for a long period, but when we met tactically superior sides, our weak midfield was our undoing. We almost lost to SA, and ultimately lost the trophy to CIV for this reason.
Under you, the team created multiple chances, but the forwards were wasteful. Not your fault, but you could have addressed that problem a bit more in training.
Anyway, wish you well as you move on to the next chapter of your career. Happily for you, wherever you are heading next, you don’t have to share your salary with anyone, or worry about nonpayment of salaries anymore!
I am 100% in support of local coaches especially those that have shown glimpses of quality coaching. I read of a Nigerian coach doing well in Finland (can’t recall the name now) Was coach Onigbinde a foreigner? Yet he did well as a coach. Late Stephen Keshi and Amodu Shuaibi were very good local coaches. We need to give our own a chance and good contract as well as exposure to modern day coaching in order to excel. I don’t believe in this mental slavery/colonial mentality that blacks are inferior to whites. We must have our own coaches to tinker our teams. Anytime Waldrum’s tenure expires, we should desist from hiring foreigners to coach the Falcons. There are capable female Ex-internationals that can step in and continue from where the white coach would stop. Support for indigenous coaches is the keyword here.
You sound racist brother!
Shaibu and Onigbinde won African club winners club before they handled SE.
Keshi qualified a small Tog team to WC 2006 where Nigeria couldn’t qualify
Tell me what any of your current indigenous coaches have ever won?
We also wish you the best sir,thank you…
Now to matters on ground,NFF why Amunike even though I’m not a fan of Cerezo he still commands the respect of the SE which I doubt Amunike has atm.
Obviously since continuity and patience are rare flowers in Nigerian gardens,the process of appointing an indigenous gaffer for our SE is a meticulous and tasking procedure or so I thought even the previously successful locals who did us proud challenged their abilities in difficult places and came out with varying degrees of success before handling our SE.
The process of appointment required that certain criteria be met on a:-
1. Certified Level
2. Experience Level
3. Performance and Results Level
When one factors in these criterion for application and approval,they get a full value situation and then both the admin and stakeholders will know that the appointee truly merited the job.
But now that politics,corruption and interest based decisions are the order of the day in our football house,the appointee is the guy who kissed the most ass that’s why we keep getting recycled indigenous coaches.
If they like let them give it to Emmanuel Amunike with immediate effect what I know is if the process is faulty,inevitably the system will collapse.
I don’t buy the ‘colonial mentality’, blacks are not inferior to whites narrative of Omonaija and Co., but I think a local coach is appropriate at this time after the reign of a foreign coach.
In fact, I think it’s a good thing to alternate 2 year appointment terms between foreign and local coaches.
Why do we go for foreign coaches? Because they are usually exposed to international coaching best-practice at the highest level with the best facilities.
Most Nigerians cannot even dream of the facilities available at the best football clubs (premier league, Serie A etc), and the support staff on hand from health practitioners to game data analytics and AI.
Football at the highest level is constantly tactically evolving as coaches try to tactically outwit each other on a weekly basis during the football season. This is where the input of a foreign coach is important in updating coaching practice, and knowledge. Applying and introducing the latest tactical and technological practises. Ideally, local coaches should use the opportunity to learn and adopt their methods.
Against foreign coaches is that the best ones are too expensive for Nigeria, as well as the FX corruption that seems to go along with their employment. In fact rather than the semi-retired journeyman foreign coaches the NFF always seems to employ who have little ambition beyond meeting mediocre targets.
I would recommend looking for younger ‘hungry and ambitious’ coaches looking to make a name for themselves and improve their CVs by coaching a team like the SE. Ghana did this when it employed a young ambitious Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who would later win the world cup with Brazil.
The call for foreign coaches is not rooted in an inferiority complex, it is rooted in the knowledge that Nigeria doesn’t have the money or facilities to compete on a coaching level with the best in the world.
For me, I prefer foreign coaches for our main teams, SE and Falcons, mainly because they come without ethnic/tribal biases, command respect amongst the players, are better man managers and can always stand their ground against NFF and agents. Our local coaches would bend to anything (NFF, federal character and agents, they’d even become agents themselves), they’d come with inflated egos and start fighting players ( …this guy thinks he’s too big to greet, he’s not made for African football etc.). Oliseh came in and surprisingly Igbonu became no. 10, Onobi started benching Mikel, I don’t even want to mention Chikatara bcos at least he was scoring goals; Mr. No nonsense claimed he didn’t know Dessers who at the time was on fire and I think leading Europa league scoring chart; Keshi was very good but at the World Cup we know he took like 12 players on merit the rest were business – Nwofor, Uchebu, Gabriel etc.
I don’t disagree with you. Everything you’ve said is correct, but somehow we have to develop our coaches. The best foreign coaches are too expensive for us, and what we’re getting are people close to their retirement looking for a final payday.
Most of the best coaches today are in their forties. If we go foreign realistically we should be looking at assistant coaches in their mid-thirties with good first-team coaching pedigree at top clubs looking for the chance and opportunity to make their name in international football.
They cost less than the experienced coaches Nigeria typically likes going for.
PS. The guy who qualified Ghana for the last WC Otto Addo, was an assistant coach at Borussia Dortmund. Ghana goofed when they decided they wanted more experience and handed the job to Chris Hughton.
Tristan, those coaches seeking retirement money have served us well, very well, since 2016 in Thomas Dennerby, Randy Waldrum, Gernot Rohr and Jose Peseiro, all of in their 60s.
You have totally missed the point Tristan. Based on the economic situation in the country and the haphazard method football is managed generally, we can not afford the services of young, dynamic foreign coaches. The working environment is just not conducive for such. At the moment, most home-grown Nigerian coaches will just end up being hopeless yes-men to damagingly powerful stakeholders of Nigerian football.
So, we have to applaud what the Dennerbies and Waldrums of this world have managed to achieve under this structurally defective football environment in Nigeria.
I think the Tristans of this world do not appreciate what these pre-pension coaches have done for Nigeria. Under Dennerby and Waldrum, the Super Falcons became a team that breaks the glass ceiling of R16 qualification since 1999 with Rohr and Peseiro putting the Super Eagles on Afcon podiums after failures to even qualify since 2013.
It is no coincidence that, between 2016 and 2022 when the Super Eagles and Super Falcons were briefly under local coaches, Nigeria failed to qualify for the world cup, failed to qualify for the Women’s Olympic football and failed to attain a podium finish in the Afcon.
Before you Tristan brutalize the tactical knowhow of Peseiro, just think about this for one minute.
I read what you write about Peseiro most times and for me it holds no water. The end they say justified the means. Peseiro’s man-management skills and tactics led us to our best Afcon outing in 11 years and our most impressive FIFA climb in modern history.
So, before you crucify his tactics, digest his achievements.
My reply will be short. For you, the end result justifies the means, which is okay. For me, the process is even more important than the result, which means I assess a coach on all his matches and not just on a run of wins.
We agree to disagree as always!
Tristan,
I will equally be brief. Even going by your framework of assessing a coach by all matches, you will see how Peseiro moved heaven and earth to satisfy Eguavoen/NFF in using 4-2-4 whilst doing the heavy man-management lifting to make the players buy into this perilous philosophy. Even though he struggled, Nigeria created plentiful scoring opportunities, qualfied for the Afcon and are undefeated in World Cup qualifiers under this philosophy.
When his legacy was under peril, Peseiro was intelligent enough to change course, adopt a defensive philosophy and navigate Nigeria to the best Afcon outcome in 11 years.
Whichever way you want to slice it, Peseiro is far more tactically savy than you appreciate.
@deo I always like to read your comments in certain situations but you know very well we will not agree on some things one being PAseiro AFCON overall performances summary and Paul Onuachu Lolz…
Guy lets be real you are actually assessing the Peseiro situation upside down paiting a clueless man as a tactitian lol okay if Peseiro is so tactically astute as you stipulate why after being Tactically exposed by Bafana Bafana and to an extent Angola did he persist with the same tactics? Why did he not find a better solution to calling on Yusuf again and again expecially after South Africa litterally opened the poor guys bumbum lol… Why did he not come up with a better solution to Zaidu when Zaidu’s finishing and end product was awful game in game out why then did it remain awful game in game out? is the National team coach not supposed to be technically astute or am I missing something Why did he not see that Onuachu is not the man for such a tournament. Why in Gods name did he call on aribo after his woeful performance against Angola or SA. and Most importantly why did he go to an Afican Nations Cup Tournament Finals (the reason the lads sacrificed 4 weeks missing club football) only to go and Defend?. with no fight.
I can go on and on but you are giving credit to a guy who basically just did what any coach could do Park the bus and use the quality of the team to COunter its really simple shuld we commend him for actually doing it I am not sure, Was it torturous to watch most times Most certainly do we want our Coach to build on that and keep using this tactic even after opposition teams have exposed it definitley not. Does Peseiro Strike me as a stubborn guy who actually will continue with the same tactic even after it has been exposed yes. Does Peseiro have any other tactical Options NO. will Peseiro Succed with any other African team with this tactic Certainly Not.
@deo Bros I can Go on and On After Iheanacho and Moffi Showed what they can do Why were they Minimally utilised in the Final in fact after seeing what they did Aren’t you asking yourself why the coach did not find more situations to utilise them in the tournament
Every footballing nation, especially one with football pedigree like nigeria has no business employing foreign gaffer.
Peseiro Congrats on reaching the Final of AFCON andyour well wishes for the Boys Super Eagles and Nigeria as a whole
However my memory of the AFCON Final will sadly be One of 1 team came to play and WIN and the other came to defend and hope for the best.
I hope they workout an improved contract for him to continue to navigate the WorldCup and AFCON qualifiers coming up. As well as take the SuperEagles to Morroco next year and hopefully the MUNDIAL in USA, Canada and Mexico in 2026. Then he can say a befitting goodbye after words.
Or find another tactically astute younger foreign coach who can continue from where we are at the moment. Anything short of that will be a disaster looming. No local coach I repeat no local coach can build on what Peseiro has done with the SuperEagles at the recent AFCON and beyond.
We have a team on ground and a somewhat golden generation that might bring back the glory days of Nigeria’s football. We showed grit and discipline in a major tournament for the first time in a long time. Therefore, he deserves to continue or get another foreign coach who can also get the best out of our players
If we make another mistake of returning the SuperEagles to another one of the glorified 94 go and have fun on the pitch type of coaches, we should just forget about qualifying for the WorldCup. AFCON yes but maybe this time our football will go back as far as 1963.
Peseiro’s man-management skills are impeccable. Just see how he revived Nigeria’s goalkeeping department and how he rejuvenated the career of Ekong spectacularly.
Even when his 4-2-4 wasn’t bearing much fruit, it still qualified Nigeria for the Afcon, left us undefeated in World Cup qualifiers and was highly discernible to the naked eye, even creating copius goal scoring opportunities.
He proved tactically grounded in adopting a new formation in the tournament and (using his superb man-management skills) making the players but into the formation at such short notice to even lead the team within minutes of lifting the Afcon trophy.
Peseiro is good, Peseiro is very good.
He used 4-2-4, 4-3-3 and 3-4-3 formation in a manner that the usually stubborn players were able to buy into each formation effortlessly.
For me, Peseiro is gone and we need to look into the future.
I will recommend another foreign older shrewd coach with proven man management skills to shepherd the Super Eagles.
Indigenous coach will not work for the Super Eagles, not that Eguavoen or Amuneke are not good enough. But I worry about their man management skills and also their inability to stand up to invisible forces of administrators, politicians, Odegbamis and journalists of Nigerian football.
Waldrum and Peseiro and Rohr and late Keshi (learning from Westerhorf) are/were well skilled in navigating the murky waters of powerful players and powerful (evil) stakeholders around Nigerian football.
I doubt we have any indigenous coach who will now drown under pressure from these forces.
I am going to make a very controversial statement: Ladan Bosso has technical skills to attempt to manage the Super Eagles in my humble opinion. But can you imagine Ladan Bosso handling Iheanacho, Ekong, Simon, Osihmen, Etebo or Iwobi? Bosso will also be a spineless yes-man to the big wigs of the NFF, Sports ministry and football agents.
Peseiro is gone, Pinnick should use his backroom invisible influence to give us another coach in the mould of Pinnick.
At the time, I criticised Pinnick a lot. But history is proving that he has a good eye for decent foreign coaches to handle the Super Eagles and Super Falcons based on the commendable achievements of Rohr, Waldrum and Peseiro.
**another coach in the mould of Peseiro**
Rohr:
1.climb in FIFA rankings.
2. qualification for world cup
3. Afcon qualification.
4. podium finish in Afcon
Waldrum:
1. climb in FIFA rankings
2. qualification for world cup
3. R16 and near quarter final in world cup
4. WAfcon qualification
5. WAfcon semi final.
Peseiro:
1. huge climb in FIFA rankings
2. Afcon qualification
3. Afcon silver having scored 1st goal!
4. highly discernible brands of football.
5. undefeated in World Cup qualifiers thus far
Pinnick, please give us another coach in the mould of any of these three……
@deo aaah we can now see Pinnick meant well after all… as I said I will always be vindicated.
deo you are painting a very beautiful picture of Peseiro’s time as coach. When he took over Nigeria was ranked 35. His poor displays over 2 years led to Nigeria falling to 40 the lowest ranking Nigeria has attained in recent memory.
All this just before AFCON. You praise him for tactical variety but in 21 months he played 424. It was only when he knew his tactics were going to be harshly exposed – and his marketable worth as a coach destroyed, that he started experimenting with 433 and 343 at the AFCON pretournament training.
Once 343 worked, he stuck to it even when other teams had plenty of video footage to analyse its weakness. Ivory Coast exposed his tactical limitations in the final. He had no answers.
This is a man who played 424 against his own Portuguese national team with world-class midfielders like Bruno Fernandes, Bernando Silva, Joao Felix, Carvalho using two midfielders two of whom Iwobi and Aribo are ersatz midfielders, i.e. their natural positions are not in midfield.
Having read your posts over the years I recognise that you always take a positive view. You did so with Egua and despite Peseiro’s dismal pre-tournament achievements you were encouragingly supportive. You supported Uzoho when others abandoned him. So we recognise that you don’t like being critical and prefer being supportive.
@Tristan That is our dear friend @deo way he always look at positives that is him. Albiet It will be nice if he can call a spadea spade sometimes but thats him no lele we mueve and continue our crusade to better our football
about your above assesment of Paseiro guy you hit the nail on the head astanding ovation to you for your analasis that is the Short and sweet of a summarised 2 year tenure.
I have been singing this for weeks on Peseiro he meant well but just is not dynamic and can not think out of the box no plan b no plan c
@Tristan That is our dear friend @deo way he always look at positives that is him. Albiet It will be nice if he can call a spadea spade sometimes but thats him no lele we mueve and continue our crusade to better our football
about your above assesment of Paseiro guy you hit the nail on the head astanding ovation to you for your analasis that is the Short and sweet of a summarised 2 year tenure.
I have been singing this for weeks on Peseiro he meant well but just is not dynamic and can not think out of the box no plan b no plan c
Tristan,
Thanks for your kind words but in truth, I think you have been reading my contributions on this platform selectively.
My first ever contact with Brother Ugo was when he quarrelled bitterly after my criticisms of Chukwueze in 2019. What an irony that I am now more sympathetic to the same Chukwueze than him.
Glory and Tayo were on my case for many months over my criticisms of Iwobi; Mercy does not appreciate my criticism of Ekong ; Golden Child and others detest my criticisms of Nwabili and AYTheGr8t was on my case for calling for Rohr’s contract not to be renewed back in the days; Dr Drey wasn’t impressed with my criticisms of Onome Ebi; some fans were unhappy when I criticised Victor Moses and I have never been a huge fan of Ndidi.
I can go on and on to confirm that your romantic picture of me always seeing only the good side of our players is (well appreciated by me) but simply not true.
Back to Peseiro, you can’t seem to make up your mind about his tactical shortcomings. You accused him of being rigid in sticking with 4-2-4 only to slam him for a changing to the 3-4-3 that attained Afcon silver for us.
In football, if it isn’t broken don’t try to fix it. 3-4-3 got Peseiro to the final and you think it is wise to dump that winning fumula? Are you for real?
It is not the formation that cost us the final, Ivory Coast Simon Kofi Adingra was just on another planet on the day and Ola Aina could simply not live with him. Take out Simon Kofi Adingra and I can confidentiality tell you that Nigeria could have lifted the trophy, Ivory Coast have that guy to thank.
Tristan my brother, I put it to you that your claim of Peseiro being tactically bereft is not one that can stand scrutiny.
Playing Iwobi and Aribo together as central midfielders was a strange decision indeed. You might as well play Moses Simon and Chukwueze together in that role. Iwobi for one is a consummate professional, and will always attempt to give you 100% on the pitch, but you can’t expect him to give what he doesn’t have. Man is an AM or winger. Play him in these roles, and he’s great. Look at his performances for Fulham. On the wings, left or right doesn’t matter as he uses both feet very well, or as an AM, the guy is very productive.
But as a central midfielder? No, no, no. Iwobi does not belong in that role. The Fulham coach knows this, and to this day, has never played Iwobi in that role. NEVER. Even at his former club Everton, he was never ever deployed as a central midfielder. Gueye, Onana, and Doukoure to name a few were the lads entrusted with Everton’s central midfield.
It is only when he comes to Nigeria that our coaches saddle him with this role that he’s no good at!
Aribo too is not a central midfielder. He is passably decent as an AM or winger, can even do a decent job as a support striker, but in central midfield, forget it.
Having the 2 of them play in central midfield, you might as well gift wrap the midfield and hand it to your opponent. No wonder Bruno Fernandes and co. ran riot against us that day! I vividly recall how the Portuguese were toying with Nigeria in the midfield. Made for very unpleasant viewing, from a Nigeria fan’s perspective!
Central midfield is a highly specialized role. It is far better to have a mediocre central midfielder on the pitch, than to have a world class AM or winger playing in central midfield. This for me is the simple fix that will make 4-2-4 or 4-4-2 work for us. Instead of combining Iwobi and a central midfielder like Onyeka in the middle, which inevitably leads to Onyeka being overworked, why not play another central midfielder alongside Onyeka? Someone who can share the midfield workload with Onyeka. Play Iwobi were he is more productive, as an AM or as a winger.
At the moment, we have a few decent central midfielders. Ndidi, Onyeka, Yusuf, Onyedika, whom I rate highly. Don’t understand why Peseiro did not use him more.
Of course there are more out there, but let’s just use these 4 for illustration purposes.
Out of these 4, select 2 to man the midfield in a 4-4-2 system, and you achieve much better balance. Ndidi and Onyeka in the middle for example means both are optimized, and neither is overworked. Yusuf and Onyedika can also produce in this role.
The key once again, is to put square pegs in square holes. Play central midfielders in central midfield. A minimum of 2 should be in the midfield to ensure that this important battleground on the pitch is not conceded to the opponent. Nowadays, conceding the midfield to any opponent is a dangerous game!
Brother Ugo,
Your complaint about Peseiro are way too granular. These are exactly, I mean exactly the same complaint I read about Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp after Champions League final shortcomings: why didn’t he play this player, why didn’t he remove that player, why play this formation, why use that system?
These granular complaints by fans will continue until the end of time. It is not productive for me to address them because they are unique to your experience and perception of how the Super Eagles performed.
All I will say is this, our goalkeeping department was revamped, our defender won player of the tournament, our players made the team of the knockout stages, we kept many clean sheets, we defeated the best penalty-spot out team (South Africa) in the tournament and we won Silver all because of (and not in spite of) Peseiro’s tactical approach.
In fact, but for Simon Kofi Adingra’s heroics, Nigeria would have lifted the trophy.
Guess what, had Nigeria won the trophy, your granular complaints would still have been the same, so what is the point?
Ladan Bosso defeated Argentina in a pulsating second round match in Argentina yet fans complain about this and that!
Eguavoen played sexy football but we crashed out in the round of 16, fans complained. Now Peseiro played negative football all the way to the final, fans complain.
The Coaches can never win.