Relief for Enyeama as Lille suspend coach

Vincent Enyeama

Nigeria goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, will certainly be pleased to see Argentine coach, Marcelo Bielsa, leave Lille.

Marcelo, who on arriving the French club in the summer deemed Enyeama and other senior players surplus to requirement has been suspended.

The Nigerian who has been injured since the 62-year-old joined was told to look for a new club in January.

But that could change should Bielsa leave permanently.

The French club have won just three games in 13 under the Argentine and a statement on their website said he had been “suspended momentarily as coach” pending further announcement.

Bielsa was due to hold a press conference on Thursday before Saturday’s trip to Montpellier, but the club have not confirmed whether it will go ahead as planned.

The former Chile and Argentina national manager returned to France in June for a second spell in Ligue 1 – following a previous stint at Marseille between 2014 and 2015 – and spent over €60 million (£44.6m) in the transfer market.

Lille appeared to have halted their slide with back-to-back wins over Metz and Saint-Etienne, but Monday’s 3-0 defeat at newly-promoted Amiens moved them back into the automatic relegation places.

Bielsa left previous club Lazio after just two days in the summer of 2016 over their failure to sign players.