Ex International, James Igwilo has urged coach Finidi George to start building a second team for the Super Eagles, he called Team B.
Igwilo a former Enyimba FC of Aba attacker was a member of Clemence Westerhof ‘s Super Eagles Team B in the 90’s.
He said if Super Eagles have a standing senior national team B, the team wouldn’t be shaken whenever a player called to camp declines due to injury or otherwise.
He said, ” Why Westerhof was the most successful coach Nigeria ever had was not that he knew more than others. During his time we were part of his team then. Westerhof had that authority over his team and that helped him take decisions on his own”.
The former youth international was reacting to some injured players who opted out of the team ahead of Friday’s crucial World Cup tie against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa.
“Now you are coming to my point, before, Super Eagles used to have a very formidable second team that’s capable. But this time, we don’t have.
“In fact what Finidi should introduce now is a strong competitive second team of Super Eagles.
I remember during my time in the Super Eagles, Team A would be camped at the Sheraton Hotel while Team B had their camp at Honda in Otta or Gateway Hotel in Ogun State. If for instance Keshi has an injury, Uche Okafor steps in and others like that to every department of the team.
Westerhof told me before we went to the Nations Cup in Tunisia ’94, during our warm match between Super Eagles Teams A and B where I proved myself from Team B. So after the game, Westerhof was impressed with the way I was attacking Ben Iroha and he told me that I am there in the list”, he said.
He however advised coach Finidi to limit the invitation of every tom, dick and harry to the national team because they live abroad arguing that, if the player living abroad is not consistently playing in his team, it’s a Red Flag
He stressed that, “A home based player that is playing regularly in his team and scoring goals for his team is very much better than someone abroad that’s not playing. I have to be honest with you, in football, money plays over 25% – 30%. When you have money, it boosts your confidence. Imagine that you invite a home based to the Super Eagles and he knows that if he plays well , he’s sure of getting up to 5000 US Dollars as a match bonus he’s sure of giving you all his best than someone that’s not playing, but because he’s in abroad, he gets a calk up over the home based and this is killing our teams, so they should watch out “.
