Leadership (Abuja)
Salihu Othman Isah
11 November 2008
Kano — It was a battle of two benches when visiting Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt took on Kano darling team, the Pillars last Saturday at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kofar Mata, Kano. The visitors drew the first blood, so to say metaphorically.
However, the match which had to resort to the wits' end of the tacticians saw Kadiri Ikhana easily showing that he is betters than Ghanaian born, Malik Jabir who is now in-charge of Kano Pillars.
Though, some observers believed he had the edge because he knows the host team inside-out as the immediate past coach of the side, others say the host bench lacked technical finesse and focus as shown by the uninspiring changes.
"Obviously, Malik Jabir was lost of ideas. Not a single one of his changes impacted on the team, and they were late in coming. But anytime Kadiri Ikhana substitutes a player, he changes the tempo of the game. The scorer of the goal himself, Ibibo Gift was a substitute and you saw how he wrecked the havoc", one Pillars supporter said.
Leadership Sports checks reveals that many other lovers of the clubside from the ancient pyramid city have long time ago described the technical adviser of the Globacom Premier League defending champions as match rusty, having been laid off from the game for a very long time.
Some even fear his style is archaic and cannot help the African Champions League debutant go far if hostilities begin. Beside, they faulted his recruitments because they reason performance is not his yardstick for selection.
"In fact, he is oftentime now a laughing stock, as he is always referred to as 'cheap article'; as he is said to have offered himself for N5 million; which some see as too cheap for an expatriate coach.
On the other hand while the match lasted, Ikhana was unperturbed on his seat as he did not celebrate the goal. He was said to have boasted before the kick-off that he was in Kano to either win or at worse pick a draw. His boys shared the same spirit and cued into his aspirations. They had rooted for a revenge to pay back Pillars in their own coins having beaten them 2-1 in Port Harcourt last season. He fielded a fitter, better and more purposeful players who knew what they were in Kano for. They approached the game as if there was no tomorrow, but their opponent and the bench were simply uninspiring.
Following the lackluster performance, the Kano state government and the Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima-led Kano Pillars Champions League Committee has been advised to insist on a new technical adviser if they must do well in the competition and save the face of Kano people and its sports-loving governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau who is seen as a lucky leader and winner.
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