Nigeria’s bid to appoint a former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp as Eagles foreign technical adviser seems to have suffered a setback as the former Portsmouth coach has concluded plans to join Australian club Central Coast Mariners as a consultant.
Redknapp recently had a two-game spell in charge of Jordan, overseeing an 8-0 win over Bangladesh and a 5-1 loss to Australia in Sydney.
The 69-year-old is also acting as an advisor to Derby County, currently fifth in the Championship. Based in New South Wales, Mariners were A-League winners in 2008 and 2012. Redknapp’s decision to opt for the Australian job comes after it emerged late Thursday night that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was set to name him the long-term Eagles manager.
A London tabloid, Daily Star, had reported that Redknapp was in line to grab the Eagles job, overseeing the country’s Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, after the team failed to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.
Coach Salisu Yusuf presently acts as interim coach, with the mandate to take charge of two upcoming friendlies against Mali in Paris on May 27 and Luxembourg on June 1.
But Daily Star said Redknapp was approached to take over reins of power, with a source close to the team revealing he could be named as the next permanent manager within a few days.
Redknapp is largely untested at international level after narrowly missing out on the England job to Roy Hodgson. But with the latest twist that he has opted to join Central Coast Mariners, it seems Redknapp has put paid to NFF’s bid to hire him for a role widely regarded as the biggest job in African football. – Vanguard.
