Super Eagles: Why Oliseh Must Not Fail

Sunday Oliseh (left) and Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick

Last Wednesday,  Nigeria
gave Sunday Oliseh a chance to put in practice all his talk as the new coach of the Super Eagles.
Reactions have been varied over Oliseh’s appointment but in general, they have been favourable.
The former Eagles skipper is widely regarded as a very knowledgeable and tactically sound coach going by his work as a TV pundit and with the FIFA Technical Study Group.
He is also known as someone who does not compromise his high standards as we all saw when he took on the country’s sports officialdom at the 2002 AFCON in Mali.
But again there are those who have questioned his very limited experience as a coach and also if he could go past the many pitfalls that go with holding down one of the toughest jobs in African football.
Quacks today parade themselves as coaches in Nigeria. They are not willing to develop and empower themselves, they are unprofessional and neck-deep in the rot that is Nigerian football now.
That explains why national team coaches are forced to train their call-ups from the domestic league on the basics – from how to kick the ball, passing and positional play.
There are also the numerous sentiments that have affected their judgment and decisions – from what they will be paid for playing a particular player to the pressures the high and mighty exert on them to pick players from them.
A person like Segun ‘Mathematical’ Odegbami is therefore living in the past to have said he would have led a protest march were a Nigerian not hired to replace Keshi.
The former Eagles skipper must have been overcome by patriotic fervour to have contemplated such.
This is because Odegbami ought to know more than most that besides the excess baggage the Nigerian coach comes with, he lacks the tactical acumen at a time when matches are now won on the bench than the pitch.
These coaches do not study their opponents and so they do not have clear and well-thought-out tactics to beat the other team.
Nigeria stars are not playing in the top leagues or some of the top clubs in Europe and some do not even get to play regularly for their foreign clubs.
But it still remains a very lame excuse for how badly the Eagles have played for many, many years now.
A good friend, the Slovenian coach Ivo Sajh, who led Kano Pillars to reach the last four of the 2009 CAF Champions League, told me has applied for the Eagles top post because “Nigeria have not had a coach for the past 10 years!”
The NFF has now displayed the will that they wish to change things for the better.
They must now support Oliseh all the way because he probably remains one of a handful of Nigerians who could get the Eagles flying again.
He in turn has to instill discipline and commitment in his team as well as groom younger players, who are hungry to make a name for themselves.
Were the Oliseh gamble to fail, we would all have to put aside national pride and seek help overseas.
That is why Oliseh cannot afford to bungle the chance a whole nation has now presented him.
.Audu writes for Africanfootball. Com.

Samm Audu