Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
The technical adviser of Nigeria professional football league Usman Abd’Allah has revealed that there was nothing he could achieve in his former club Eyimba if he remained there as the coach, hence he had to leave the job.
This was made known in an interview today 16th April. While speaking on his job as the coach at Eyimba, Usman revealed that most of the problems endangering the club was from the club officials
“The working environment is becoming bad, becoming hostile, they were very aggressive and most of the officials in Eyimba are my problem because they keep interfering in my job which does not go down well with me because you can’t just interfere into my job and I just let you in, it’s not possible. In Eyimba, whatever you do, they take the credit and whatever faults that comes in, they always look for the scape goat.”
Usman Abd’ Allah’s playing career spanned the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. In Africa he turned out for various Nigerian Clubs, including Sanka Vipers of Kano; UNTL of Kaduna, Rocks of Kaduna, Stationery Stores of Lagos and Mogas 90 of Benin Republic. He played in the Kano State academic and festival teams in the 1980s and the national Under-20 and Under-23 teams along with his older brother – Hassan Abd’Allah.
In 1991, he moved to Al Arabic FC and Bayer Leverkusen. He moved to Singapore where he played for Jurong FC, Khalsa Fc and Gombak United FC, while his odyssey in Asia also involved periods with top side Sheikh Russel in Bangladesh and Kalantan FC in Malaysia.
At the twilight of his playing career, he returned to France and starred for Bollene FC and also FC Sete. Abd’Allah stopped playing in 2006 while with a second division side in France.
Further speaking on his quest for more wins in the club which was not forthcoming especially the continental trophy which the club lost to it’s opponent, Usman feels it’s a game which could be won but the trophy was lost due to the Management’s negligence
“There is nothing I think I can achieve with Eyimba especially with the system that is on going which is too old fashioned and the welfare is very poor. They don’t care about anybody, they don’t care about the players, they don’t care about the welfare of the team. They can leave us for almost 15-16hours lying down on the cool concrete at the airport instead of going to an hotel, the buses are not in good shape as we spend 6-7hours on the road hanging around on the road because the bus keeps developing mechanical faults on each trips.”
“I need to win, I came into the club and two years after I won the league. Now, I want to win the continental trophy, the last time I was near getting to the final, the management in their usual manner cost us the semi final and we lost the game and I cannot sit down while they keep repeating the same thing and I want to win the continental trophy, I don’t want a team whereby I just qualify for continental and play it, I am no longer interested in playing a continental but to win the trophy, This is my ambition and I have a passion to win.”
While stressing on the managements non challant attitude towards the club, the former Kano pillars coach lamented that the management were only interested in making money and selling off players and not concerned whether the team win or losses
“It’s all about winning and business, when we lost the continental match, all we heard from the officials is that they have brought in agents to know if they can sell players. They don’t care If we lose, it’s all about selling players and making money. Then I said to myself, a team cannot win a continental trophy with this system Eyimba is operating on. For two years, there were no bonuses in the team and they can even sit down and tell the players that it is not their right to ask for bonuses. Although there are many positive things about the team, but I left because of the negative things.”
While speaking on his current job as the coach of Wikki Tourists Of Bauchi, he expressed his joy and his happy that the club is making a lot of progress compared to when he just joined the team.
“When I came to Wikki, they don’t really have a deep problem. It’s a club that has been left behind on so many things but right now, the club has become an exciting team to see, they have the crowd, the money and the only thing is just to add up some experienced players and just change many things and move ahead and they have the best welfare.”
” They play in the premiership but their fitness is not up to sixty percent and they are almost half way up the season, so you can understand that there is a problem, that is why people were wondering how the team transformed just within a month that I came in.”
