After winning the 2015 U23 CAF Africa Cup of Nations title in style, Coach Samson Siasia is hopeful of strengthening his squad with the addition of Kelechi Iheanacho, Isaac Success, Alex Iwobi and Aminu Umar, ahead of the Olympic Games in August.
The quartet is included in the final list of players that would play for Nigeria in Rio.
Siasia, who has been on holidays in the United States (U.S.), has kept mute about his plans and programmes for the Olympics .
The coach, however, broke his silence when he spoke about his programme with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Tuesday.
A very close confidant of the coach, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed on Wednesday that Siasia has been thinking of ways to boost the team’s front line that has given him much headache since the 2015 All African Games.
The former Super Eagles coach is not expected to do a total overhaul of the team, but he is eager to inject quality players to make it a very solid and result-oriented one capable of withstanding threats from European and South American opponents that they would face.
“The chief coach has been working all this time he has been in the United States because he told me that time is not on the team’s side again,” the source said.
“What is paramount in his mind is injection of quality and talented players to beef up the team and make it stronger than the one that won the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations. He has a limited number of players he is looking at and the search light is on the three departments of the team, attack, midfield and defense, but most importantly the attack and the defene line.
“As I speak with you, he has already spoken with Kelechi Iheanacho, Isaac Success, Alex Iwobi and Aminu Umar to be members of the team. He said with a number of grade A friendlies, these attackers and the other defenders and midfielders that he hopes to introduce to the team would not only fortify it but make it very ready for the battle to conquer the world at the Olympics in Brazil.
‘The chief coach has wonderful plans to surprise the world this time around and he said that both the National Sports Commission and the Nigeria Football Federation have vowed to help him out this time around not like what happened in Senegal during the Africa Championship.”
Siasia, winner of Olympic silver medal as coach in 2008, hopes to go one better this year by bringing home Nigeria’s second gold in the Olympic Games football event.
