lawmani: What Stephen Keshi needs to understand,Urgently!

Stephen 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 (AFCON) 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. Analysts all had problems naming incoming players at the Confederations cup for example.

Ever since I expressed my personal disagreement at the huge number of Local based players that represented Nigeria at the just concluded Confederations cup, on Supersport, thousands have clearly stated their understanding and agreement of the point of view just as some, our super Eagles Nations cup winning coach, Stephen Keshi included, have disagreed and made some regrettable comments. this I feel is quite unfortunate and personal.

The basis behind my comments (which were shared by every other consultant at the Supersport panel) were to help and bring attention to the fact that we needed to urgently improve our local league to maintain our new status and gradually add new home based in the mix in other not to burn the ends.

As we speak, I have discussed with Mr Nduka Irabor (Chairman of the N. Pro League) on how I can help them through my position and know how to improve our league standard so it can be productive again. Who knows we might just get it back on track after all.

What Is So Special About Foreign Based Players?

If you are a Foreign based pro. it is not because these foreign clubs want to do you a favour, it is because you are one of the best from your country, simple. By gradually trying to wage a war against these players who ply their trade week in week out at the highest level leagues in the world we are turning our back to our best and waging a war against ourselves, they are Nigerians too I must remind !

They should not be cast away just because our technical crew lack the skills to manage them at the detriment of Nigeria.



Ever asked why The out flux of Nigerian home based to Europe has reduced drastically in recent years? It is because the Europeans for example after several scouting visits to our local league games find the tempo and standard quite low, not credible and with the crisis in the world have little time to wait for years work to upgrade these players, otherwise Sunday Mba, who I find quite solid & talented should have been bought immediately after the AFCON!

The unbalanced flooding of home based is a strategy that can work at the AFCON level etc but at the world stage, we will play well but lose, like we used to do in the 80′s & 90′s prior to 1994 and now did at the Confederations cup!

Unless this trend is done for other personal reasons outside that of the direct interest of the nation which we are not aware of!

My Take

My belief is not that we should not use home based players, far from it, if Sunday Mba was not at the Nations cup in 2013 for Nigeria I do not think we might have won it, at least like we did. He however was well surrounded by Victor Moses, Emmanuel Emeneke etc and made his contributions productive and easier. We saw how this poor boy struggled at the Confed. cup just 4 months after doing us proud in South Africa! Oboabona is one of my favourites and with some more polishing would go places internationally!

The Speed Of World Level Soccer,Today

The Confederations cup was of a higher level than the AFCON: high level tactics, Advanced Coaching, speed of execution and result orientation was on display and the world cup next year will be even at a faster pace. That am sorry is why I feel a gradual introduction of home based players, shouldered and protected by experience should have been the case, cause the scenarios for them to play at this level are absent at the moment!

I believe you noticed how at ease Obi Mikel was Vs Spain or Uruguay, the man is used to these kind of players and their level, simple !

Players are not Made at The National teams but by the clubs and leagues so improving our league standard should be the priority!

Why National Coaches are called Managers, Technical Advisers & not a full coach .

National team coaches are called Managers because they are not supposed to form players due to the short time they have to work with them, but they are supposed to be good at selecting like or complementary players, mix them up to produce results.

When mighty France of 1998 won the World cup and the Euros 2000 they had few players from the then solid French league but mainly from the then better Italian league that was at its best.

Our priority should be improving our league and the use of the CAF Home based Nations cup to get experience for the home based will be wise!

Stephen Keshi’s Job Is The Last Thing I Want!

I can understand that Keshi feels threatened by the possibility of a sack 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. I know the custom lately amongst some of the coaching crew in our dear country has been attacking the incumbent to take his place, but I believe I have proven over and over again that my consultancy company and my life that I have spent 23 years to build in Europe which I cherish dearly is more precious to me than the day to day stress that comes with Being the Super Eagles coach!

I wonder how I will continue to run my 6 year old consultancy business that has now gone global, coach my youth team, fulfil my new but cherished introduction into FIFA with the Super Eagles Coaching job 6000 kilometres away from my family!

I have said this uncountable times, although I love my country it is not in my wildest dreams to manage the super eagles otherwise I would have accepted the NFF Technical director job and eventually the super Eagles.

If he can accept our support and praise, he should accept our constructive critics in the interest of the country and making enemies left and right is not the way to go, obviously some of us do not learn from the past! The interest of Nigeria comes first than that of Sunday Oliseh or Stephen Keshi !

How should it have been?

As we saw with Brazil at the Confed. Cup, continuity makes a team grow. Ever since we won the Nations cup in February our team line-up has been unpredictable and full of constant changes. In a year leading to the world cup that should not be the case.

True we had injuries to key players but they had people on the bench for them at the Afcon who should have taken over the baton and continue with the spirit of the AFCON and new players invited to understudy.

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 super Eagles and in those days our national league was ‘fire’, well organised, competitive, balanced and one of the best in Africa. That’s how Clemence Westerhoff and Bonfrere Jo succeeded!

It is unfortunate that Keshi sees enemies everywhere and maybe it is understandable but the interest of Nigeria’s progress is what we all should be seeking now and I believe making attacks like he is doing is not the right way to go about it, we are way too matured for that, at least I know I am!

Long Live Nigeria!

Feel free to follow us on Twitter @SundayOOliseh

https://twitter.com/SundayOOliseh
http://sundayoliseh.tv/what-stephen-keshi-needs-to-understandurgently/

overdrive: Bulls eye from oliseh!

What is bull's eye here. Abeg, no valid points but rants. Mind you Coach Keshi deseves the praise for Mikel's development. How coupd Oliseh try to credit foreign coaches who only tried to destroy Africa's brightest talent.

WildChild00: My take on the issue between coach Stephen Keshi and Sunday Oliseh is this, both of them have really tried and countributed to the development of football to our dear country Nigeria no doubt about that, but has anybody ever ask himself/herself why coach Stephen Keshi is always to quick to defend his team, as in when they do badly, "we are still re-building, and as you can see, the xyz team has been together for 3-4years, why the super eagles for just 8 months" must Keshi always say this when they loose? He said this wen we lost to Spain, etc....

As for Sunday Ugochukwu Oliseh, we know you are an analysis, but you should not forget where you are coming from.

Lordave: "If he can accept our support and praise, he should accept our constructive critics in the interest of the country and making enemies left and right is not the way to go, obviously some of us do not learn from the past! The interest of Nigeria comes first than that of Sunday Oliseh or Stephen Keshi!"
what more does he (Oliseh) need to say?

collynzo2:
.
.WHO ARE THEY PLEASE?


.
.WHO SAYS KESHI CAN'T MANAGE THEM? He changed Mikel to a player who now wears our shirt with pride.



.



.
.Conveniently forgot that the transfer window was already closed before AFCON ended


Oliseh is just bitter.

Lordave: what do you mean by Oliseh is an analysis

olu070706: This was not all about Oliseh alone on Supersport, all the panel members said this, why did Keshi pick on Oliseh, maybe because he is a Nigerian. However, I agree with Oliseh that Keshi should welcome criticism, even the special one is criticised. All other teams in Confederation cup came with their best team but Nigeria went to test new players, this should not be. Keshi is still okay sha.

WildChild00:

He was airing his own opinion, as a sport commentator for Super sports, dat is wat I was about saying.

texaco1:
you don't know keshi ,he will never accept or take corrections that is why he calls himself the big boss then.oliseh has made some reasonable points,the world cup is where the boys are seperated from the men keshi should do the right thing now .he needs to identify the areas that we need experienced and exposed players

Kgdavid:

you are a big dreamer

NO LONG TIN: This Oliseh sef!!! d guy don dey tire me.

Who out of the AGCON team that did us proud didnt participate in CONFED apart from Emenike, Moses and Yobo (for obvious reasons)?

The foreign based players he is campaigning for neva did anything for us apart from fighting and showing us how big their egos are.

Although we lost in the CONFED, I've neva been so proud to be a Nigerian(football-wise) till AFCON and CONFED. We played well in CONFED and lost, unlike when we go to tournaments play baldly and still lose (even with our white coach(es)) - and there was hardly any home-based player back then. Does Oliseh want us to go back to that period?

He also claimed he(keshi) should be able to manage players, I agree with him on that but managing players is also knowing when not to bring in a player that will disrupt team spirit. He should find out why Joey Barton at his peak didnt represent England regularly.

He Also talked about Brazil not using new faces as the reason they won, I could also show him teams that didnt win using the same old faces and countries with foreign based players 'the best out of their countries' - according to him, dat flopped e.g. Coit d vior(abi wetin b d spelling.. d 1 with drogba dem)

and then he caps it off, with I'm doing it for the greater good of Nigeria, nobody is greater than Nigeria bla bla bla. He should save it for his chickens. If it wasn't a personal attack on Keshi but to develop d Nigeria league as he claims, I don't see how abusing/telling the home based players they are not good enough helps, going on air to Say stuff when he could have called him. If he wants to help he should channel his attacks on the management of the NFL - that's d solution not limiting the number of home based players in the national team shikena

Nawa ooo , I just deh pour out my heart, I no know say I don type reach dis 1..... gudnyt all

Same thing with EPL analyst. They analyse past games for pre-match analysis, analyse first half during half time. Then analyse the whole match during post match analysis. They are always scared to analyse and lose.

delors: Havent you guys noticed that the analyses of these so-called professional analysts are always reactionary? They run their analyses after the matches have been played and then blame the coach for what he did/didnt meanwheile nobody said anything about the problem or loophole before the matches. if those guys had won or at least reached final, they would have said Keshi was d best in the world, he had vision to have used those home based boys, etc blah blah blah...
Oliseh for one cannot manage the national team because he has a very high ego cum pride so tay if any player talks any how or do anyhow to him, such a player is grounded for life. He would have resulted to social media to exchange words with Osaze when the Osaze-Keshi issue rose, were it an osaze-Olishe thang. Oliseh is arrogant and sometimes he talks without a care, unprofessionally. (i still remember the things he said about Yekini before he died)
Back to the Confederation palaver, Moses had an injury so was Emenike...apart from those two 9and of course Yobo), who else could we have invited? Musa plays abroad, Ideye, Mikel, Efe, Enyeama, Omerua, etc what exactly is the point?
And by saying 'WAGING WARS AGAINST FOREIGN PLAYERS', oliseh is trying to create a problem and dissent to make it look like Keshi is actually anti-foreign based players which will so unfair to say the least. Osaze was the only player who missed out as a foreign based player for the right reasons, Oliseh made sense because his commnets came after the tournament. Anybody could have said the same and even better because we all watched the matches and saw the lapses. Apart from that, he isnt much of an analyst abeg.

aikuda:

I guess that is what analysis is about- to analyse an existent issue or a phenomenon, usually with a view to profer solutions or improvement. It is similar to what you are doing now!

emorse: If I were Keshi, I'd silently take Oliseh's advice because a coach is only as good as his last match. Moreso in our beloved Nigeria.
Remember Samson Siasia's and his team of 2005. The whole county wouldn't stop singing their praise. They called Siasia all sorts of names. Disciplinarian, Mr. No nonsense, to mention a few. Then came his time with the Super Eagles. This same "no nonsense" attitude was what got him kicked out of his job after clashing with and leaving out some of his best players, hence failing to qualify for CAN. Jose Mourinho was once asked if he ever plays to lose. He said "The only time I play to lose is when I'm playing with my kids!" If this doesn't stress the importance of winning, I doubt if anything else will. Football is not just a game of beautiful moves and tactics. If you fail to win, you're out! Keshi should just be a man and learn from his mistakes and those of other coaches, accept constructive criticisms and stop bickering about what happened donkey years ago. He is a good coach. But only as long as he keeps winning.
If I could offer him an advice, I would say to him - Play every game with your best players, either home based or foreign based. Have in mind that the experience of some foreign based professionals cannot be bought. Neither can the talents and skills of some home based players. Find a perfect blend!

Lordave: Oga some of those players you listed as injured were not really injured. Moses faked his injury.
You are talking about IK Uche not in form, by now you should have known that even injured he's better than Gambo in the field.
What was his reason for not calling Haruna?
The issue of Osaze is a totall failure on Keshi's side, I was expecting him to play a fatherly role over that issue, ie acting as a mediator between Osaze and Nigerians.
One thing you should understand is that Oliseh is doing his job and with it Keshi can get a better result. For you to come here and counter Oliseh's opinion is unprofessional of you, cuz it's only going to make Keshi ignore more criticism instead of learning from them.

timmy: I saw oliseh's comment after the Spain match and it was directed largely at the league managers and not the coach. As much as ppl think keshi is good, I think he isn't. At afcon his tactics were poor and we struggled in the stage games. Against civ, we were underdogs and that made our players up their energy level, and since then keshi has adopted this energy football. Charge and follow! That's why our players burn out so easily. They spend so much energy charging at opponents and fail to build up a decent pas that leads to goals. The only time we did at the comfed was when mikel scored. We conceded 5 goals and scored only one (please Tahiti shouldn't count ). Ideye, akpala, ujah and miss are all good strikers, it takes a great manager to bring out the killer instinct in them. Keshi was a defender, how will he know what to tell our attackers? Why i love Siasia is that he fields players that fit into his style. Keshi keeps saying our team is young, yet he is the same person who keeps changing at will. What happened to obiora nwankwo, Reuben Gabriel, and all the guys who went for afcon? Why is our afcon winning team unable to beat Rwanda, Kenya and co just few months after winning afcon? Simply put, the success factor that was around th team at the afcon knock out stages are no longer there. The NFf, Amodu, kanu, jayjay and many sport analyst were all in camp to motivate the players. Keshi and amokachi know the politics they played to get Siasia out. Using the same super sport. Karma is about to tell on them.

edoyad: Sunday(kpomo lips) Oliseh, please be quiet already. Keshi has contributed more to Nigerian football than you could ever do even if you lived to be two hundred years old. I didn't like your personality much as a player and many Nigerians feel that way too.

ayusco: Hmmm I have gone through both keshi n oliseh post being proud men full of ego so its no suprise they would clash that said I'm mostly with keshi on this.
Oliseh said during the 90s the league was on fire which is not true as the pitches, administration, level of play etc was just as poor if not worse than the current situation.
He also said keshi has not had a steady first xi since the AFCON again not true barring two or three players missing due to injury this has been the same set of players who played through the afcon, WC Qualifiers to the confed cup. And pray tell who r d major players that keshi did not take that would have improved our performance in Brazil? Is it calamity yobo or osaze n his twitter rants?
Then he said clubs not NT make players abeg who was onazi b4 the afcon dude wasn't even a first team player now he's an absolute beast of a player. Mikel that was lethargic at best now bossing midfield against world class opponents n more like that.
Plus the way all of them r shouting home based home based you wouldn't know he also called unknown players from abroad omeruo, ogu, onazi, dike etc
Lastly all this hue n cry about our confed performance is over the top cmon this is the confed we are talking about a glorified friendly tournament. I rather we make our mistakes learn from it then come smoking hot for the 2014 WC Cameroon got to the final of the confed cup some years back does anyone remember? Exactly my point Brazil tht has won the last three confeds failed at the last two WC which cup do u think Brazilian fans would have preferred? Keshi has his failings but he hhas never fielded a player just to massage his ego any player he picks he believes can do a job for the team this approach won us the afcon after years of drought with the same players some people r clamouring to come back. By the way no be oliseh lose ball wey 10 man Italy use score against us in usa 94? Its very easy to criticise to look good

thegoodjoehunt: It is people like you who didn't watch Siasia coach a second time at the U20 who expected much from him. He failed woefully and still wanted thr Super Eagles job.

As for always using our best players, Coach Keshi doesn't have the luxury of having Neymar, Lucas Moura, Jo, Fred, Paulinho for Brazil.

XAVI, Iniesta, Pedro, Busquets, Navas, Silva, Mata for Spain.

Cavani, Suarez, Forlan for Uruguay.

Mourinho had CR7, Kaka, Higuain, Benzema, Ozil, Di Maria, Modric and many more and went trophyless. Do you think Mourinho can cope with our national team better than Keshi? Do you know what Keshi will do with that Madrid team?

collynzo2:
.
.WHO ARE THEY PLEASE?


.
.WHO SAYS KESHI CAN'T MANAGE THEM? He changed Mikel to a player who now wears our shirt with pride.



.



.
.Conveniently forgot that the transfer window was already closed before AFCON ended

Oliseh is just bitter.

milehigh06:



what!!!!!!that is total bs you just poured through your nostrils,mou did not go trophyless
he won the league,copa del rey and supercopa with madrid before he left.
keshi would have done squat with madrid like you all forget that keshi was also a coach of mali and togo and if you are good,you will be coach of a better team,at least when madrid job became vacant,keshi was not on mars


Not saying he is bad coach but Nigerians should stop over blowing that stupid ego we have
we still ahve a long way to go