Rivers United and Heartland will clash in a Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) matchday two encounter on Saturday (today).
Former Super Eagles stars, Finidi George and Emmanuel Amuneke will be the centre of attraction in the encounter slated for the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt.
The duo were in the running for the Super Eagles head coach job earlier this year, with Finidi getting the nod of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
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Finidi however left the post after two games to pitch tent with Rivers United.
Rivers United started the new season with a 0-0 draw at Bendel Insurance.
The Pride of Rivers fought hard to earn a share of the spoils from the game after goalkeeper Bamidele Adeniyi was sent off early in the second half.
Heartland lost 3-1 at home to oriental rivals Enyimba in their opening fixture of the season.
By Adeboye Amosu
8 Comments
Was this not what I advised 2 or 3 years ago when they were all sitting lazily in their parlours claiming entitlement to a national team job that is way beyond their capacity…?
Or what is wrong in Finidi’s River’s United facing Eguavoen’s Bendel Insurance, Kennedy Boboye’s Sunshine Stars facing Mobi Oparaku’s Abia warriors, Sunday Oliseh’s Warri Wolves locking horns with Dan Amokachi’s Lobi Stars, Garba Lawal’s Kano Pillars trading tackles against Amunike’s heartland.
But no…..they sit in their homes and want to coach Ajax and PSG and Man Utd with their empty CVs 18 months combined cognate experience…..LMAOOoo…claiming nobody wants to give them jobs.
Bunch of delusional folks.
Spend 6-10 years in the League, Win WAFU and CAF cups like Amodu and see if clubs and national teams outside Nigeria will not come to that your parlour offering you mouth watering contracts.
The Rivers hoopers basketball club coach Ogor Odaudu got about 3 offers outside Nigeria just for finishing on the podium at the recent Basketball Africa League. He is currently coaching a club in Rwanda now.
They that have ears let them here.
By the way, any news on Joseph Yobo and his ‘coaching course’…?? Where are the state FA chairmen who claimed he was good enough to coach the SE. Why have they not employed him to coach their state teams after his disengagement from the national team…..?
Good match-up. I wish I could watch this live or see highlights on Youtube. E get why. CSN, please serve us post-match highlights biko.
Rivers has more Arsenal in the Bag. Amuneke took a bad job!
Gullible fans will judge Amuneke with this strange team. I hope he stops using emotion to take jobs because he is not helping his profile, except he achieves the unthinkable!
That’s another angle like Kompany leading Man City to Bbeat urnley handled by Pep. Let’s hope Amuneke can pull a rabbit out of the hat.
Finidi will dismantle Amuneke with this opportunity. This is no match up, heartland that is relegation candidates will only dent Amuneke like Kompany did with Burnley.
Hahahaha….are they already making up excuses ahead of time for Amuneke.
Only a novice does not know that the gap between the no 1 and the no 18th club, players and coaches in the Nigerian league is not a wide one.
The only gap that exists in the NPFL is that of government support. The season the state govt supports you, you can qualify for continental football, and the season the govt doesn’t, you can get relegated.
There was even a season when the points gap between the champions and the 18th placed team was 18 points. The difference in just usually the amount of points you pick away from home as home wins are always guarantee.
Players crisscrossing clubs with reckless abandon is also not new, the same players that relegated one club will win a continental ticket for another club the next season. That is why clubs can afford to sack as many as 15 players at the end of a season and recruit 15 new ones. Even the current champions Enugu Rangers are guilty of this
The last time we checked Amuneke was hired at the conclusion of the previous season and hence supervised the recruitment of players for the current season…so I don’t know why excuses are begining to fly around ahead of time for him.
If he’s that good he will make a commendable impact with heartland. Afterall it was someone who won the last Federations cup with a 2nd division team from a war torned part of the country.
Even a PE teacher like Rohr managed to turn around the fortunes of a team like Benin republic and now they are contenders for qualification for both Afcon and the World Cup.
Enough of the excuses. You know how good a coach is not when he coaches an all start team, but when he coaches rookies and yet grinds out performances from them.
I had knwon Fidelis ilechukwu was a good coach the year he led a MFM from being a mere church team to qualifying for continental football.
I also started respecting Kennedy boboye as a good when he wọn the league with Plateau United.
Gbenga Ogunbote the master of all of them in the league today got to back to back semifinals in CAF CL and Confed Cup with a certain lowly club like Sunshine Stars of Akure, giving us home grown quality national team materials like Godfrey Oboabona, Tunde Adeniji, Seun Olulayo, Sunday Abe and the rest of them who ended up playing for various cadres of our national teams.
So Almighty Amuneke should also prove he is indeed a good coach by at least qualifying heartland for continental football.
Elkanemi, Sunshine Stars, MFM and Plateau United are not bigger teams than heartland
@Dr.Drey,you are on point and thank u for this excellent observation and contribution. Some flat headed mumus, with scabies all over their head would come here are try to make case for Amuneke even when he fails.
Their reasons are baseless and dead on arrival for any football enthusiasts
If Emmanuel Amunueke is that good as a coach he should turn around players at his disposal, show what he can do with this opportunity and not for any tribal goat to start saying Rivers United have better players