A
former captain of the Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh, has lashed back at
Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi over comments he made against him at the
weekend. Oliseh, who responded through his blog, asked Keshi to learn to
accept constructive criticism and work with it like managers in Europe
do rather than slam any professional that raises any issue about the
Eagles.
Last
Saturday in Kaduna, Keshi lashed out at Oliseh for saying that there
were too many unexposed home-based players in the Confederations Cup
team. Oliseh said it affected the team’s performance in the FIFA event.
Writing
via his blog on Tuesday, the Belgium-based Atlanta ’96 Olympics gold
medalist said, “Keshi is a good coach. In fact he is the most successful
coach Nigeria has had in the past decade and by winning the Nations Cup
2013 he boarded the ship of achieving coaches.
“But
one quality that successful and long lasting coaches have is that they
have always had a nose to differentiate constructive criticisms from
destructive ones and act on them even if they do not agree in public.
Ever since our nation triumphed at the 2013 African Cup of Nations our
Super Eagles have been struggling, relatively, and has failed to
consolidate on this landmark success due to the fact that we do not have
continuity and there has been this obsession to experiment and
overpopulate the team with more home grown players.
“Ever since I expressed my personal disagreement at the huge number of local based players that represented Nigeria on Supersport thousands
have clearly stated their understanding and agreement of the point of
view just as some, Keshi included, have disagreed and made some
regrettable comments. This I feel is quite unfortunate and personal.”
Oliseh
argued that he remains one of those at the forefront to improve the
Nigerian league while telling Keshi he does not want the Eagles post.
“My
belief is not that we should not use home based players. If Sunday Mba
was not at the Nations Cup I do not think we might have won it, at least
like we did. He however was well surrounded by Victor Moses, Emmanuel
Emeneke and made his contributions productive and easier. We saw how
this poor boy struggled at the Confed Cup just four months after doing
us proud in South Africa.
“I
can understand that Keshi feels threatened by the possibility of
sacking and back stabbing, but my comments should not be seen as coming
from a possible successor unless one is desperate, which I thank God I
am not. His job is the last thing that I or my family need.
“Nigeria
is bigger than anyone and for the records sake in answer to Keshi’s
erroneous declaration, I was 3 years as a pro in Belgium and a regular
player in Liege by 1993 when I got my first call up to the Eagles and in
those days our national league was well organised, competitive,
balanced and one of the best in Africa. That’s how Clemence Westerhof
and Bonfrere Jo succeeded.”
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