Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick has moved to explain the rationale behind his planned trip to the United Kingdom to visit Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and Manchester boss Manuel Pellegrini.
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Pinnick was in North London last week to visit the Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and many questioned the reasons for such a visit.
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The NFF boss says the benefits of such visits are latent and would impact positively on Nigerian football.
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“I have heard of people saying why should I go and visit somebody like Arsene Wenger, the beauty of it is not quantifiable and in the next couple of weeks I will also be meeting with Mourinho and Pellegrini.
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“The other time we wanted to call Iheanacho and we heard issues about the coach and all that but if I have a relationship with the coach it will just take a phone call.
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“I spent about two hours with Arsene Wenger and he assured us clearly that he wants Chuba Akpom, Iwobi and Semi Ajayi to play for their country. Talking about Iwobi, many people did not know how he came to Nigeria.
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“It is very difficult for people to come down from England and play for Nigeria looking at the terrain but by God’s grace, we have gone beyond that,” Pinnick said.
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He added that his trip to North London “was very rewarding” as he was afforded the opportunity to learn from “the best”.
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“Honestly, the trip was very rewarding because personally I learned from Professor Wenger who brought a sheet of paper and was teaching me about administration, it is always good to learn from the best and he will take our technical study group for two sessions.
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“He has equally agreed that any of our senior coaches can come for training and that is the reward of that visit,” he said.
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