Enugu II wrote:
ukwala,
How are you? What do people think about the appointment of Benedict "Suru-gede" Ugwu as Rangers coach? What is his coaching background? Is he up to snuff? Also what is the general take on the club's recruitment of players. It will be a shame if both Enyimba and Rangers fail to go far considering the early exit of Pillars, especially. For Tornadoes, I really never expected much from them to begin with.
EII, I am fine thanks. Trust you are too. Thanks for reviving this thread, though after this reply, we may need to start a fresh thread for the 2019/2020 season.
I don't think any fan is sold on Surugede as Rangers coach, and it would appear neither is the club Management as he is but a caretaker coach. He has been Youth coach in Rangers for a couple of seasons but nothing spectacular and we are still waiting for the substantive coach.
MFM's former coach, Fidelis Ilechukwu, who may not have won anything yet but did very well to keep MFM among the top teams (much like Pochetino at Spurs) was touted at some point but he ended up in Heartland.
The Brazilian, Rafael Everton, who has been at Ifeanyi Ubah and Akwa United was also touted but so far nothing yet. He is still free, having just left Akwa United and so may yet end up with us and though I am not a big fan, I won't be too displeased to see him at Rangers (afterall he won the Confed cup - FA cup - with FCIU). I still remember with Nostalgia, the exploits of his compatriot, Roberto Diaz in the early 80's.
A number of new players have been recruited - Kehinde Adedipe (Rivers United), Obinna Eleje (unattached), Agu Kenechukwu (Lamryl United), Uche John (Enyimba), Ibrahim Olawoyin (Abia Warriors) and the most notable of them Ikechukwu Ibenegbu (alias mosquito, the veteran attacking midfielder who has been all over the place and lately with Enyimba). A couple were promoted from the youth team (Surugede boys??).
On the downside, we lost two of our best players of last season; our captain Godwin Aguda who left for a 2nd division team in Saudi Arabia, and Bright Silas (much loved goalscoring wide midfielder) who moved to a club in Egypt. We also lost Bobby Clement who was injured for much of last season and has returned to Kuwait for a second spell there.
Not knowing the current form of the team with all the changes in players and coaches, we can only hope and pray that they do well both at home and on the continent when the season starts soon. Our pre-season preparation however seems to be going well; we defeated Heartland (Ilechukwu et al) in Okigwe (Heartland's home) on Wednesday and will play Warri Wolves tomorrow Sunday in Warri. We also won the inuagural edition of the Enugu FA super cup (???).