With the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) expected to kick off next weekend, elite clubs across the country appeared to have put a lid on their preparations for the new season.
Beyond playing friendly and tune up matches across the country, the NPFL clubs have strengthened their squads with the signing of new players. However, one of the clubs that have gone overboard in the signing of fresh legs ahead of the coming season is Kwara United FC.
Despite signing about 10 players, midway through last season, the club under the leadership of Prince Oladimeji Thompson surprisingly signed 18 players while also retaining 13 of its playing personnel.
Surprisingly, only one of the new signings of the club was plugged from the feeders’ team of Kwara Utd.
Among the new players are goalkeeper Edwin Nwakama, Solomon Owello, Andrew Ikefe, Peter Momoh, and Chinedu Ohanze joined from Abubakar Bala’s former side Niger Tornadoes.
Others are Mohammed Ekpoma and Ebenezer Odeyemi, who was named the man of the match in the semi-final of this year’s Gold pre-season Tourney in Akure joined from Katsina United.
Adding a total of 18 new players to last season’s squad is totally outrageous and could be counterproductive, especially in terms of team blending.
The large number of new signings by our domestic league club every season may be blamed for the poor showing of Nigerian clubs in both the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup.
In other climes, especially in Europe, clubs depend largely on their feeders’ team to strengthen their squad and on the average, they sign three new players in preparation for a new season.
Though the club President, Prince Thompson was quoted to have said that the new additions to the club were selected after meeting up with the philosophy of Kwara United, it is however not likely the change will bring about the desired result on the pitch.
With the large number of new signings, the club will likely drop points in the first half of the season until Coach Abubakar Bala is able to discover his best starting XI and employ the right tactics.
The management and supporters of the club will need to get behind the team and be patient with the players and coaches at least until the second half of the campaign.
Interestingly, coach of the Afonja Warriors, Bala said he’s delighted with the arrival of the players but he added that there are still areas the club must improve on.
“This is the outcome and good result of our hard work and I am okay with these players for now.
“There are still much to do, we are still monitoring, scouting for more good players, these are the ones we have discovered and satisfied with for now,” he said.
