Sports Ministry Wants Former Tottenham Boss As Eagles Coach
Amidst the uncertainty surrounding the contract renewal of Gernot Rohr, top officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has identified former Tottenham Hotspurs manager, Harry Redknapp, to take over from Gernot Rohr.
Sports Minister, Mr Sunday Dare in a video made available to newsmen revealed that he wanted a competent manager to handle the Super Eagles whether it is Rohr or not.
Dare said, “All I want is a coach that is competent, I don’t care whether it is Rohr or not. The name doesn’t matter, but does he have the credentials?
“Look at our footballers, they play in some of the best clubs in the world and are coached by some of the best coaches.
“So if you want to coach a Nigerian team, you better be sound because the invited players that are going to represent the country train under the best coaches, therefore, we don’t want a player that is sounder than the coach.”
However, the NFF Executive Committee in a meeting held via video conferencing on Thursday, mandated its General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi, to liaise with the Super Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr, with a view to putting to rest all matters around his contract within the next seven days.
But according to a top football stakeholder, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Punch, he revealed that even though Rohr was about sealing a new deal with the NFF, the ministry was looking at Redknapp taking over as coach of the Eagles in the coming days.
His words “He (Rohr) is expected to get another contract offer from the NFF as there are other likely conditions included in the deal to be sent to him today (Monday),”
“But if he (Rohr) doesn’t accept the new offer, it will pave the way for the ministry’s preferred candidate Redknapp; he is highly rated by the ministry officials, even though some feel he may be too old for the Eagles job and hasn’t had a coaching job for about three years.”
Redknapp, 73, last managed at Birmingham City in 2017 but was sacked after five straight league defeats, which left the Blues second bottom in the English Championship table.