ARTICLE: You Will Never Walk Alone.- Marvin Omo-Osagie

 

Almost eight years ago, a rookie coach, GEJ was mastering the act of the game (democracy) as an assistant to our then head coach, Yar’adua. It was as early as then that he started showing glimpses as the SPECIAL ONE. The then head coach was delegating a lot of games to him because he was showing special tactical understanding of the game (national and human development). He is simply a genius of a coach (president). 
During his time as the assistant coach we were battling relegation (massive corruption, kidnapping, electoral rigging, ethnic tension, insecurity, militancy, economic recession, unemployment, etc)

In his third year as the assistant coach, tragedy struck. We suffered the demise of our head coach Yar’adua. After so much deliberation and uproar from the board (Federal Executive Council), GEJ was promoted as the interim coach (Acting-President) until the end of the season. It was a daunting task for anybody to move us out of relegation in short time but he was unfazed by the opportunity. His appointment was met with a lot of objection and trepidation. Most were concerned about his lack of experience as a top flight coach (coming from the minority and not been in the old political circle) but he charmed them all with his tactics and results.

Before the end of the season, the fans moved in support of a campaign to give him the role of the head coach on a permanent base. It was an emotional movement because in the few games he was in charge, he recorded 60% winning rate which was a vast improvement on any previous coach.
We survived relegation at the end of the season and were well placed on the table. Then came the time to make the big decision.

Our former coach, Buhari, who took us to relegation in 1984 with his poor tactics, poor man-management, dispute with players and board members, strict training regime, playing people out of position, poor scouting report and poor transfer, joined the race to become the permanent coach. Buhari has the worst record of winning percentage rate of any coach in our club. After 12 months of not being able to improve the team and take us back to the Africa premier league, he was justifiably sacked.

Coach GEJ’s blueprint of his goals and objectives, where he wants to take the club and how he plans to do that was a masterpiece (Transformation Agenda). It is incisive and elaborate
After so little consideration, we went for GEJ. It was a collective choice from all involved. Suffice it to say that choosing GEJ over Buhari was no brainer, it was an easy choice to make. Our experience with Buhari was a failure, he took us to relegation and almost took us to double relegation. He was so consistent in failing and he never stood a chance.

Coach GEJ was handed four years contract with an option of extension to another four years. It represented absolutely the choice of the fans.

TO BE CONTINUED…….