By Tony Ubani

AS Stephen Keshi andSamson Siasia go for the interview for the position of Super Eagles coach tomorrow, many Nigerians are waiting anxiously to know on his head the pendulum would settle on.

Siasia

The debate on who is a better coach to succeed Swede Lars Lagerback who took a walk after the dismal outing of the Eagles at the World Cup in South Africa is already intense and has pitched so many on different tents. Opinions are divided and the coaches are set to storm Abuja for the interview.

But in our usual refereshingly different manner, Sports Vanguard can reveal that Olympic  silver-winning coach Siasia is riding high on popular opinions. But those opinions, we gathered may not be enough to get him the most lucrative job on the land.

An investigation by Sports Vanguard reveals that former Togo and Mali coach, Keshi rates higher in the minds of the technical afficionados who hold the key to deciding on who gets the job. But there is no doubt that deciding on the two coaches would be too close to call at the end.

The high points that are in favour of Keshi include qualifying Togo to their first ever World Cup, and also handling the Mali senior national team. Keshi is also said to be ready to work with indigenous coaches. He is said to have the respect of  most of the players of the senior national team and also is ready for talks on his salary.

A member of the Technical Committee said yesterday that they would do a good job to get the best for Nigeria insisting that public opinion would not influence their judgement. Sports Vanguard learnt that some of the things that may count against Siasia is his insistence on bringing on board Dutch assistant coach, Kalika when NFA made it clear that only indigenous coaches would occupy that position. Another is his job at Heartland which many believe has dented his good record.