New Telegraph

AFCON: Paseiro’s appointment won’t affect my performance – Eguavoen

…says team ‘ll approach each match differently

Super Eagles caretaker coach Austine Eguavoen has shot down insinuations that the appointment of a substantive coach for the national team before the start of the African Cup of Nations has dampened his morale which could affect the way his team will play at the tournament. Eguavoen said during a press conference that the position of the Nigeria Football Federation to name Jose Paseiro as the new man to succeed erstwhile manager Gernot Rohr was in order and he would do his best to justify the confidence reposed in him to lead the squad to AFCON. “I am the Technical Director in the NFF and when a difficult situation arose and my bosses said I should step in, I had to do that in the overall interest of the Nigerian football. You and I knew there would be a time when the substantive coach of the team would be appointed and the NFF has done the needful by making this appointment.

Now, I have a job to do which is to go to the Nations Cup and put smiles on the faces of Nigerians by doing our best. I am not really bothered about that,” he said. Eguavoen also said he was confident striker Odion Ighalo will join up with the team for the AFCON despite the refusal of his Saudi Arabian club to release him. Ighalo is torn between club and country after his team Al Shabab maintained he will not feature at the AFCON after they signed him when he had already retired from international football. Various reports have even suggested that several players have been placed on standby to replace the former Manchester United ace.

“Hopefully Odion comes,” Eguavoen said. “But if he doesn’t come, we have other strikers here too, we have Sunday Awoniyi, there isn there is Kelechi Iheanacho, there are other youngsters. As coaches, we also have to twerk the team in such a way that we will achieve our objectives,” he said. The team has had one of the worst preparation for the AFCON in the history of the country; the Eagles have not had a full training session one week before the start of the tournament as most of the players didn’t show up at their Abuja camp but Eguavoen insisted it is no excuse for them not to do well in Cameroon.

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