NIGERIA goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama is now a Liverpool target according to reports from England. The Nigerian captain is the latest goalkeeper to be linked with a move to the Reds.
Kop boss Brendan Rodgers is understood to be in the market for a new number one after axing Simon Mignolet earlier in the season. Mignolet was dropped for the 3-0 defeat at rivals Manchester United in December after a series of blunders. He’s since returned to the starting XI following injury to his replacement Brad Jones.
But it is believed that Rodgers’ lack of faith in Mignolet has seen a host of goalkeepers linked with the club, with Fiorentina’s Neto and Australian Mat Ryan listed. And now reports from Europe have linked the Reds with a move for Nigeria international Enyeama.
The 32-year-old is currently at French side Lille, and has featured for his country at three World Cup finals. Transfermarkt.de reports that Liverpool are scouting the goalkeeper, who is tied to Lille until June 2017. Enyeama is understood to be valued at around £3m.
In Lagos, a former Nigeria international, Henry Nwosu, has said the belief that a foreign coach is the solution to the coaching problems of the Super Eagles is a wrong one.
Since Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, the Eagles have yet to have a substantive coach. Also with the Nigeria Football Federation yet to conclude contract talks with Stephen Keshi, whose initially contract ran out after the 2014 World Cup, there have been calls for a foreign manager to lead the team.
But the former Golden Eaglets coach, Nwosu, believes that the era in which foreign coaches are thought to be invincible have passed by.
“I have stood by it for quite a while now that a foreign coach is not the solution to the Eagles problem,” he told our correspondent on telephone.
“The era is gone when people think that foreign coaches know everything about football. There is nothing those foreigners want to do that our own local coaches cannot do. Some of these coaches cannot even match up to the level of our local coaches. But the problem we have is that we don’t give these coaches the free hand to work. There is always too much interference in the work of our local coaches when they are appointed that’s why most of them fail.”
The 1980 AFCON winner added that African coaches have the technical know-how to compete with most foreign coaches anywhere in the world.
He said, “African coaches are not inferior to the foreign coaches being brought to coach the national teams. They too have good coaching certificates and the same trainings that these foreigners boast of.
“They know our players well and know the terrain better than these coaches who will not stay in the country.
“What they need that isn’t given to them at home is the support and free hand to work.”