After all, the last time he took to the training field
Emenalo was in charge of a group of 11-year-old girls.
Emenalo, 45, was taken to Stamford Bridge as chief scout in 2007
by the then-manager, Avram Grant, straight from the Tucson Soccer
Academy in Arizona, where he had been in charge of the '96 Girls
side – the school's under-12s – for little more than a year.
Even that seemed a strange appointment for a man who had enjoyed
a successful, if hardly glittering, professional playing career,
which peaked with his inclusion in Nigeria's squad for the 1994
World Cup. If his club employers were rather less distinguished –
he had spells in the United States, Belgium and Germany, as well as
a brief stint at Notts County, before retiring in 2000 after two
years at Maccabi Tel Aviv, then coached by Grant – his coaching CV
was even less impressive.
Though the current West Ham manager offered him a post in Tel
Aviv after retiring, Emenalo's only previous bib-and-cone based
experience was a year as a volunteer coach at Virginia Tech
university in Blacksburg.
"Michael arrived in Tucson because it was his wife's [Erin
Fahey, also a coach] home own," said Charlie Kendrick, a colleague
at Tucson academy. "As soon as we heard people of their experience
at such high levels were around, we took the opportunity to have
them work with our kids. We could not miss that chance."
It was clearly a task Emenalo relished. In a statement published
on the Tucson academy website after his appointment as director of
player development, he indicated that he saw his responsibility as
"pre-formation training".
"It ensures that the player, at a formative age, is presented
with the right soccer information and training before bad habits,
and inexperienced coaching set in," he said. "It is our collective
experience that a young player cannot excel in soccer unless he/she
can completely master and dominate the ball.
"To gain that mastery, it is crucial to start early. It is also
our intention to recreate the 'street soccer' credential by
providing a safe, fun and culturally relevant environment that
encourages more spontaneity and freedom of expression with the
ball."
Such a philosophy may come too late to turn John Terry into
Ronaldinho, though the former England captain and his team-mates
would do well to note that Emenalo's methods bear fruit, as proved
by the Tucson academy side who came under his wing.
That under-12s side finished the 2007-08 campaign – under the
guidance of Emenalo's replacement, Charlie MacCabe – as runners-up
in the Arizona State Cup. Little wonder Emenalo is remembered as
fondly in Tucson as he is at Boston University, where he played as
a student and is included in the Hall of Fame.
"We do not really have a soccer culture in America," said
Kendrick. "So maybe people at the time did not realise how lucky
they were to have someone of his calibre working with their
children.
"Maybe now they see that he has got such a big job, they will.
Those of us who worked with him are all rooting for him. If anyone
deserves success, it's Michael."