SIASIA: Dont sack me, I need more time!

samson siasia

Beleaguered Nigeria coach Samson Siasia is appealing for more time to shape up the team, despite failing to qualify them to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

The former international is likely to be fired by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) with a meeting taking place on Thursday to determine his future with the Super Eagles.

Ahead of the NFF announcement the coach has told the BBC that he still has what it takes to turn the team around. He said the national side has gone through a great transformation under his watch and keeping him will be in the best interest of the team.

“I love this job and I know what I’m doing, I just need some time,” Siasia said. “Let [Nigeria fans] look at what we have been doing, let them look at the games we have played and compare them with videos of before I took over – they can see improvements, they can see changes. They can see the players running, not what we saw at the World Cup. I don’t need to tell them, let them go and look. Most of the players causing the problems are the ones who have been there for more than 5 years. They just want to take over the camp and I won’t let them.”

He denied handling the team with tough hands.

“I am not a brutal person or a dictator, I try to compromise,”‘ the manager said of his disciplinarian style. “But I am the head coach and whatever happens I will take responsibility. It takes time to build a team. Give us some time. We know Nigerians are hurting but give us some time.”

 

Source: goal.com

Tottenham offers to make Luka Modric its first £100,000-a-week player with improved contract extended to 2017

Tottenham has offered to make Luka Modric its first 100,000 pound-a-week player in a new contract that would tie him to the club until 2017.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy opened talks two weeks ago over a new deal for the Croatian midfielder and has now offered a basic salary of 90,000 pounds-a-week, twice his current 45,000 pound weekly salary.

That alone would smash the club’s wage structure and make him its top earner, but performance-related clauses in the contract offer could take the 26-year-old’s wages to in excess of 100,000 pounds-a-week.

Modric is believed to be close to accepting the deal, but a sticking point is Spurs’ desire to extend his contract by a year to 2017. His current deal is due to expire in 2016 after he signed a six-year contract last summer.

“There is a bit of work to do but it looks like Luka will sign the new contract,” a White Hart Lane source told Goal.com. “He’s happy again playing for the club and has put the summer speculation behind him.

“In an ideal world, the club want to agree more than just a pay rise and are looking to get a one-year extension out of him.”

The talks between Tottenham and Modric’s representatives come after the club rejected repeated attempts by Chelsea – which culminated in a 40 million pound bid – to sign the wantaway midfielder over the summer. Modric claimed at the time that money was not his motivation for pushing for a switch across London despite the 130,000 pound-a-week contract on offer from the Blues.

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