Ikhana : I’m no Magician
Enyimba coach, Kadiri Ikhana has cast a serious cloud over their chances of having a successful CAF Champions campaign by insisting he cannot ‘perform any magic’.
The 2003 and 2004 African champions play Buffles du Borgou of Benin Republic this month in the first preliminary round, but have already been plagued with several issues.
The players are yet to be paid part of their allowances from last season, and only just resumed training a few days to the start of the last Super 6 tournament.
And Ikhana, who is the first Nigerian coach to win the CAF Champions league has come out to state that they have not prepared enough to participate in the Champions league.
“We have not had a very good preparation for the Champions league and so I cannot perform any magic when the competition starts.
“We only just resumed training a few days before the Super 6, but we have not had enough time to prepare and some of the players are even complaining that they have not been paid, so it’s a problem.
“We will go into the competition and do our best but I cannot perform magic. We had a better preparation in 2003 when we won the competition, but it’s different this time and there is nothing I can do about it,” Ikhana stressed.
Enyimba will host their counterparts from Benin Republic on the weekend of 13-15 in Aba.