PART 1: BUILDING THE SUPER EAGLES OF THE FUTURE
As the bitter -sweet leadership of Stephen Keshi comes to an end , The NFF/NFA and the footballing fans in Nigeria are now in a very crucial situation , We are faced with making the decisive decisions that would make or break the future of the Super Eagles. A change of approach is desperately needed and we must take timely decisive steps to ensure a fruitful future. Time is of the essence .I have taken sometime to review the national team and have made some possible suggestions on how the team could positively change. These are my personal opinions and you don't have to agree with them. I would however welcome constructive criticisms / Alternative opinions. But atleast take time out to read through before commenting.

STRUCTURING THE TEAM
SET UP FOR NEW TECHNICAL TEAM:
The selection of the new coaching crew should be based on 3 qualities: Merit, Experience and qualification With an 8 year long term plan. A structure of continuity where by assistant coaches can successfully take over from the head coach without the cloud of animosity hovering around the technical crew.

CANDIDATES TO BE IN THE NEW TECHNICAL TEAM SHOULD BE:
Manu Garba, Sunday Oliseh , George Finidi. In my opinion these are undoubtedly the most qualified, and seemingly the best we have to offer.

ANALYSING THE CANDIDATES
MANU GARBA: Manu Garba's experience with the U17 and currently U20 side gives him an edge as he would successfully oversee the transition of his hugely sucessful U17 (currently U20 ) side who would inevitably form the larger part of the future Super Eagles. Manu has successfully worked with the U17/ U20 boys so the transition from U20 to the senior team should be smooth (although the unwanted "intervention" of external forces like the NFF and Government officials could come to play due to his close relationship with them).
Personality: Calm, Works silently ,stays away from media publicity , chooses his words carefully. He is in the mould of Manuel Pellegrini of mancity, A father figure of some sort.

SUNDAY OLISEH: Oliseh has years of experience as a player , and a hugely impressive qualification (spent years studying the intricacies and nitty gritty of football , earned the following coaching qualifications in the process : U.E.F.A “PROFESSIONAL” COACHES LICENSE , THE U.E.F.A “A” (ADVANCED) COACHES DIPLOMA , THE U.E.F.A “B” (BASIC) COACHES DIPLOMA. I dare say and stand to be corrected, he is out rightly THE MOST QUALIFIED of all coaches we have (Within and outside the country). FYI these certificates are well documented, & accounted for and not "made in Toronto" .
Personality: Places emphasises on hard work, Strict disciplinarian , Eloquent , Confident, Out spoken, Pro active, Educated, Intelligent and matured. Some qualities we haven't seen in recent years.

FINIDI GEORGE: Years of experience as a player, one of the most technically adept players Africa has ever produced. Spent most of his career in the Spanish La liga and at one time was regarded the best crosser/winger in the world. A man of few words, George's qualifications include Uefa B coaching license, as well as currently being the youth team coach at Real Betis.
Personality: Humble, Discipline, Shy's away from the media, Tranquil and placid in nature, he comes across as one who is an astute thinker kinda like Pep Guardiola who also started as a youth coach. Not saying he is our Guardiola, just saying they have similar traits.

PART 2:HOW THESE MEN COULD IMPACT THE FUTURE
The future SE are still young and with proper guidiance and continuity they can be molded into the frame of the SE greats of yesteryears (94/98 team).

MANU : Just has to keep doing what he did with the U17 boys . The U17 boys were known for their style of play (clustered up Midfield, short precises passes, quick transition play from defense to attack , A play pattern that is very similar to that of Borussia Dortmund).

OLISEH :
Since Oliseh left the SE , 2 disgusting traits have been dominant in the national team :
1, Unpatriotism 2,Disregard for hard work / Nonchalant attitude towards representing the National team. I believe with Oliseh in the techincal team our lost values for hardwork and disciplne would be restored in the SE of the future (Whom i believe we should develop now that they are still young , hungry for greatness and haven't been poisoned by the big boy syndrome of pride and arrogance ). Our team hasn't had a true "midfield enforcer" for over a decade now . Some of the U17 boys were promising and i believe under the tutorship of Oliseh we can have a DM in the mould of Oliseh/Makalele. Oliseh studied football from the european prospective (lung busting runs, hard tackles , counter attacks, long shots and tactical discipline) and I believe our midfield could do with some of these qualities.

FINIDI:
Has a slightly different footballing Philosophy compared to that of Sunday Oliseh. Emphasizes on speed , technicality and flair . Findi's football philosophy could be likened to that of the spaniards. and this is probably why he was handed the responsibility of grooming real betis youth team, He also got his Uefa coaching certification from europe (Spain I would assume) and so he would probably appreciate the values of european football (speed, tackles , set pieces, tactics). A technical team comprising of Oliseh and Finidi would see both men take charge of the position either one knows best and would probably result in us having a balanced team with rugged midfield and lots of attacking flair up font.


FAST TRACKING YOUTH PLAYERS/ CREATING A BALANCE:
If we take sometime out to look at the REAL super eagles (the key players , not these clowns Keshi called up) you would find out that the age of the average of the SE player is about 27/28 (footballing age, that is). What this means is that by 2018 most of our current players would be 31 or 32 years old in FOOTBALLING AGE. This calls for immedite injection of youthfullness to the team. As of now the only youth team worth considering is the U20 boys (although more stars could emerge within the 4yrs from now till 2018, Nevertheless i would base my analysis on the CURRENT rising stars from our youth ranks).Players like Awoniyi, Who i believe could be a perfect striker if properly groomed, Ihenancho, Nwakali, Yahaya, Success and Alampasu should be fast tracked into the SE besides players like Moses, Omeruo , Musa , Onazi , Mikel , Mba , Oshaniwa , Emenike (common sense would let you know that these players are our youngest players in the SE , Others wouldn't be here by 2018 regardless of the false age the choose to claim.....Taye Taiwo comes to mind). 4years is still a long time and i believe our youth teams we have the raw talent to build a compact SE team ahead of 2018 , They just need to be properly guided and as of now i CANNOT think of any other group of persons to take up the task other than Manu, Oliseh and Finidi .

PART 3: IDENTIFYING THE ROT IN THE NATIONAL TEAM

DANIEL AMOKACHI:
Amokachi has been around the Ngerian footballing technical team for quite a long time now and has either led or been a part of the national team on various levels (youth, homebase , senior levels ) and the outcome has always been the same - FAILURE. With our abysmal performance at the world cup I think it is safe to say that amokachi is hard headed, tactically and technically inept and that doesn't surprise me as he has NEVER been known for his intellectual capacity. Amokachi was one of the senior players (alongside the big boss keshi) to have started what is now known as the "Super eagles Mafia" . A group of indisciplined senior players who called the shots. In order to totally rebuild the future of Nigerian football , Amokachi has to be seen as a festering rot that has to be cut off immediately.


STEPHEN KESHI / BIG BOSS:
A nick name that perfectly fits his persona. Keshi is a hard headed power drunk dictator with a larger than life ego. Keshi would be better of as the tyrannical leader of a dictatorial military junta somewhere in Africa but being the coach of the SE or any other team as a matter of fact is an absolute NO, NO. One only needs to look at his relationship with the teams who have unfortunately had him as their coach.
Mali: The malians had a crunch match , a match they desperately needed to win at the AFCON some years back YET keshi decided to bench his best players. Mali were down 4-0 and with barely 20minutes left , Keshi decided to throw in the players he kept out of the starting team. The game eventually ended as a 4-4 draw with Kanoute and Keita scoring. When asked why he left the players out, Keshi gave the same reason we have all been so accustomed to hearing from him: THEY WERE INDISCIPLINED AND DIDN'T PLAY TO "INSTRUCTIONS". He was immediately shown the exit door by the Mali Football Federation but before leaving he claimed that the Mali Football Federation " don't give you room to do your job." He did the same thing in Togo , starting a power struggle with Adebayor , that ended in a sour note and he gave the same excuse : THE TEAM WAS INDISCIPLINE .

Fans of Keshi would always say "a player cannot be bigger than the team" while this is correct, We must also know that a coach cannot be bigger than the team as well. There's a wise saying that goes "if its not broken , don't fix it". The AFCON team successfully lifted the trophy and yet for some trivial personal grieviances , Keshi kept on tinkering with the team and dropping players.He took his best players to the AFCON tourney, lifted the trophy , took the same side to the Confed cup in Brazil , The players built a perfect understanding of each other and then with barely 4 months to the worldcup, he SHOCKINGLY replaced some of these key players with mediocre players like Uchebo, Azeez, Gabriel, Azubuike and Ameobi, and then took these clowns to the WORLD CUP! The WORLD CUP for crying out loud!!! If that doesn't constitute insanity then what does ?

We had IK UCHE, a player who scored 18 goals last season , His goals guided the newly promoted Villareal to their highest placed finish in recent years and they even came close to snatching a slot for the Europa championship yet the "big boss" refused to call him up, A wise coach would have noticed that the weak link in our team was our atacking options. Last season the goals tally of Osaze , Emenike , Musa and Moses combined wasn't up to 20.We created chances at the worldcup , sadly we lacked decisive finishers like IK UCHE. Keshi while trying to maintain his image of being the big boss (a poor imitation of the special one Jose Mourinho) refused to call up the right players , Instead he placed his personal interest ahead of the "160 million Nigerians" he incoherently spoke of in one of his cringeworthy adverts . He seemed more concerned about endorsement deals and being a star in the limelight than his job.

LAST WORDS
The future SE technical crew should comprise of hardworking , disciplined, learned and QUALIFIED men, Silent workers who have spent years studying football and are licensed coaches like their European and south american counterparts. Gone are the days when coaches were hired because of their footballing background. Now you need to MERIT the position , You need to be QUALIFIED for the job and i think its time Nigeria learn this .
We don't need a dictator , we don't need a "big boss", All we simply need is a coach to diligently do the job of a coach as every other right thinking , rational coach would.

[size=16pt]You spoilt your analysis by discrediting Keshi, a man that has achieved what no Nigerian and indeed no African, dead or alive has ever achieved. [/size]

1. Won the African cup as a player and as a coach
2. Been to the world cup as a player and as a coach
3. Won the 2013 African Nations cup with a team that didn't even qualify for the 2012 edition and he won the cup
4. Has coached 3 African teams and qualified 2 to the world cup (Togo, Nigeria)
5. Firm believer in Nigeria premier league (Took a whooping 6 home based players to the 2013 Nations cup and 4 of them moved to Europe immediately after)
6. Firm believer in Nigeria premier league (Took 3 home based players to the 2014 World cup)

<----Adding More--->


7. First African coach to take his team to the second round at the world cup
8. First CHAN tournament [size=16pt]ever[/size] for Nigeria and he came 3rd!

You had better wipe your distasteful comments about Keshi immediately. If a white man achieved a fraction of what he did, you people will praise him to high heavens but we will always revile our own. If Clement Westerhof is a good man, Keshi is not a great man, he is a HERO.


<-------Additional comment----------->
OP for your information, in Canada, the annoying assistant Referee that ruled Emenike goal off-side is Canadian. They have over celebrated the man for being selected by FIFA. Since his selection, I can not count the number of interviews he has granted for various TV stations. They even went to his house to interview his family. I come dey wonder, no be assistant Referee he beeee.
If you watch CNN regularly, you will see how CNN has almost built a station on Clint Demsey house. Visited his city, interviewed his brother, sister, brother-in-law...even his grand parents...encouraging and celebrating their own.

But you, you sit there in the corner of your room berating a man we should honor...SHAME ON YOU OP...SHAME ON YOU.

Watch this ESPN series that premiered in May "Inside: U.S. Soccer’s March to Brazil" to see how people appreciate their heroes and inspire the generations ahead

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/brazil2014/joe-fletcher-canadian-ref-gets-world-cup-knockout-assignment-1.2691173

http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/05/12/16/55/140512-espn-inside-us-soccer-series-premier

With the suspicion over the advantage we have over other Nations in age grade football, it will be a mistake to assume that a coach is a tactician because he has won an age grade competition

I value the experience of the coaches plying their trade in the local league over that of Manu Garba.

What is Manu Garba profile? Has he managed a local league team before and where did the team finish ? I won't read too much meaning into the success at age grade level.

Let Manu Garba grow with his boys and take them to Olympics then we can start to assess Manu Garba

mikeansy: With the suspicion over the advantage we have over other Nations in age grade football, it will be a mistake to assume that a coach is a tactician because he has won an age grade competition

I value the experience of the coaches plying their trade in the local league over that of Manu Garba.

What is Manu Garba profile? Has he managed a local league team before and where did the team finish ? I won't read too much meaning into the success at age grade level.

Let Manu Garba grow with his boys and take them to Olympics then we can start to assess Manu Garba

I absolutely agree with you, but the fact is IMO, it wasn't really about Garba's boys winning the tournament, but more about how well they played together as a team. the 1-8-1 formation they adopted worked flawlessly, and suited the boys. Keshi's obsession with a 3 man midfield despite lacking the quality required for such, was his undoing.

IMO The next technical crew should consist of the 3 mentioned tacticians.

Team Taribo west

[b] Bros this is a great article and you really pointed at every part of the team,
Let me start with
THE ADMINISTRATORS: i must confess that the present NFF/ NFA ( which ever one) has done a lot to promote our brand, but they certainly need to do more to build on their success, by being a little bit professional and sincere in handling issues, i was a little sad when i heard of bonus/allowance palaver during the World Cup, but above all i give the administrators ABOVE AVERAGE and urge the to do more.

THE COACHING CREW: @OP you seem to know about AMOKACHI and things his is capable of, the truth is that AMOKACHI is not a good influence to our National teams, many still do not know the dirty role he played in the removal of SIASIA, and that includes most of 94 set (ikpeba, amokachi, okocha and oliseh) which SIASIA saw earlier and said that some people were jealous of him, similarly YOBO was referring to AMOKACHI the time he had problem in the national team when he said that a particular member of the coaching crew was jealous of him, the truth is that we don't need AMOKACHI around the team again.
KESHI: the best way to discribe keshi is to call him a motivator, he is not really a good tactician, if he wishes to stay i'll advise he goes for more training to update his tactics but if he wishes to go the NFF should look for a very tactical coach that is willing to make Nigeria his HOME, maybe they should take a look at that coach that took libya home base to south africa this year (that coach really knows what tactics is all about).

THE PLAYERS: with 2018 not so far away we need to start building and exposing our players to major tournaments, that is why i'll like most of the u20 players to be quickly drafted into SUPER EAGLES, atleast 5 players from that team should be part of the AFCON 2015, yes they maybe preaparing for the AYC 2015 during that period but they can easily fall back, we should also be looking at young anglo-nigerian player of real quality, put them together with some of the young players from the squad that went to the World Cup and we can get a solid team.
PLAYERS TO FORM THE NEW TEAM:

GOALKEEPERS:

VINCENT ENYAEMA (C)
AUSTIN EJIDE
DELE ALAMPASU (needs to learn from enyeama and ejide)and
another SOLID YOUNG GOALKEEPER (needs to learn from enyeama and ejide)

DEFENDERS:

KENNETH OMERUO
GOEFFERY OBOABONA
ELDERSON ECHIEJILE
JUWON OSHINIWA (impressed me at the World cup)
KENNY OTIGHA ( since he has indicated interest in playing for Nigeria, maybe the officials need to take a look at his QUALITY)
NDIDI WILFRED (of the u20): this guy is another OMERUO in the making, hope he lives up to expectations.
MUSA MOHAMMED (of the u20): he has an over flow of morale, with the way he is going he can keep any player permanently on the bench.
LEON BALOGUN (he impressed me in the match against MEXICO.

MIDFIELDERS:

OGENYI ONAZI
MIKEL OBI (if only he can drop pride and ego)
RAMON AZEEZ
NOSA IGIEBOR
EFE AMBROSE ( i know many will be wondering why he is not in my defence line up, the truth is that, that guy is simply wasting in that defence haven't we noticed that EFE has some tricky skill that opens up space? That guy should be our new no 10, his skills reminds me of KANU NWANKWO
IFEANYI MATTHEW ( of the u20) this guy is going to be one of the biggest midfielders from Nigeria in no distant time if he continues with the way he is going.
KELECHI IHEANACHO (of the u20) we already know what he is capable of all he needs to do is make a good progress at the clubside
CHIDIEBERE NWAKALI ( of the u20) another good midfielder that needs to make good progress at clubside
MICHAEL OLAITAN ( hope he returns from that heart problem ASAP

STRIKERS

VICTOR MOSES
AHMED MUSA
EMMANUEL EMENIKE
IMOH EZEKIEL (i still do not know why he was dropped for the World Cup
ISSAC SUCCESS ( of the u20) nigerian version of samuel etoo, looks like him, plays like him, dangerous like him, am suspecting samuel etoo
TAIWO AWONIYI ( of the u20) nigerian version of welbeck, same playing style, long legs good ball control, works for team
CHINEDU OBASI
SONE ALUKO.
There are still some other great players from the nigerian league.[/b]

mikeansy: With the suspicion over the advantage we have over other Nations in age grade football, it will be a mistake to assume that a coach is a tactician because he has won an age grade competition

I value the experience of the coaches plying their trade in the local league over that of Manu Garba.

What is Manu Garba profile? Has he managed a local league team before and where did the team finish ? I won't read too much meaning into the success at age grade level.

Let Manu Garba grow with his boys and take them to Olympics then we can start to assess Manu Garba

What was Pep's profile before he took over as the head coach of Barcelona in 08 ?

bin gbagbo:
Team Taribo west

Qualification?

I like

booked

money ansareth all

Booked.




After reading.



[size=15]LAST BULLET[/size]


The future SE technical crew should comprise of hardworking , disciplined, learned and QUALIFIED men, Silent workers who have spent years studying football and are licensed coaches like their European and south american counterparts. Gone are the days when coaches were hired because of their footballing background. Now you need to MERIT the position , You need to be QUALIFIED for the job and i think its time Nigeria learn this .
We don't need a dictator , we don't need a "big boss", All we simply need is a coach to diligently do the job of a coach as every other right thinking , rational coach would.

....blah blah blah-I'm not a talkative.we have been talking since 1998 world cup with nothing to show for it....

Very lengthy. Nice one all the same. Meanwhile Keshi said he quit because of criticisms from Nigerians: http://www..com/i-resigned-because-i-was-tired-of-all-the-backbiting-says-keshi/

Mr.chippychappy:


What was Pep's profile before he took over as the head coach of Barcelona in 08 ?

Pep Guardiola played football at the highest level and captained Barcelona!

He did not come from no where.

phreakabit:

Qualification?

UEFA LICENCE A

CAF LICENCE A

IJEBU LICENCE T

DRIVING LICENCE

TV LICENCE

BOKO HARAM ATTACHMENT LICENCE

If licence makes a good coach, sunday oliseh should be coaching chelsea now

Brb

phreakabit:

I absolutely agree with you, but the fact is IMO, it wasn't really about Garba's boys winning the tournament, but more about how well they played together as a team. the 1-8-1 formation they adopted worked flawlessly, and suited the boys. Keshi's obsession with a 3 man midfield despite lacking the quality required for such, was his undoing.

1-8-1 formation?

While that works in age grade football it just won't work at senior level because the last 1 player will keep opposing attackers on side and your defence will be found out!

I watched the under 17 team and could not work out the formation. They play like a basket ball team. You can't get away with things like that at senior level. You need to control games at the senior level

Keep Supporting the super eagles.. Okay.

Pray that you'd ONLY be diagnosed with High Blood Pressure Next year.

.......

bumdish: You spoilt your analysis by discrediting Keshi, a man that has achieved what no Nigerian and indeed no African, dead or alive has ever achieved.

1. Won the African cup as a player and as a coach
2. Been to the world cup as a player and as a coach
3. Won the 2013 African Nations cup with a team that didn't even qualify for the 2012 edition and he won the cup
4. Has coached 3 African teams and qualified 2 to the world cup (Togo, Nigeria)
5. Firm believer in Nigeria premier league (Took a whooping 6 home based players to the 2013 Nations cup and 4 of them moved to Europe immediately after)
6. Firm believer in Nigeria premier league (Took 3 home based players to the 2014 Nations cup)

You had better wipe your distasteful comments about Keshi immediately. If a white man achieved a fractions of what he did, you people will praise him to high heavens but we will always revile our own. If Clement Westerhof is a good man, Keshi is not a great man, he is a HERO.

Absolutely agree

We can say all we like about Keshi but can't erase his records!

how i wish keshi didnt resign...
d super eagles would v gotten a bright future..
but with keshi gone...
S.E is back to square one...

Your intentions are very WRONG! It is very clear you have some hatred for Keshi. It is because of pple like you that football is dying in nigeria. Did u watch the nation's cup at all? When last did you see SE play like dat (especially the games against mali and CIV)? Those brilliant displays that kill joy (aka pull him down) like you will never notice is courtesy of the man you called heady. This same keshi took unknown players to chan and beat south Africa on their home turf; they went further to beat Morocco from 3 goals down to win the match 4-3. B4 The chan competition, nobody gave the players any chance except their coach (keshi) who believed in them. Yet pple like you think such a man isn't fit enough to continue with the SE. When last did SE played so brilliantly against Argentina and france like they did during the WC? may be 20 years ago. Am certain dat backward minded souls like u were never expecting such display from our players. And those great performances that pullhimdown like you don't see as anything special were courtsey of the man you love to pull down. Yeah nff should employ a new coach so that he can start from scratch again. They should get new hands that had never been there with the players 3 years ago when this rebuilding started so that he can start all over again with his own choice of players, strange ideas and methods of instructions that the players were never used to. At the end of the day, SE will go back to the dust. Pple like you are always quick to compare SE to the Belgian team without using your hate-filled head to think properly. Do you know why the Belgian team is in the quarter final today? It was because they took time developing their football. They actually gave their coach 9 good years to work on the team. Keshi had only spent 3 yrs with the team and he already has excellent results to show for it. If it is a foreign coach will you call for his removal after all his achievements? No you won't. I am certain the reason your head is so filled with hate for keshi to the extent that you can't think right anymore is because he didnt invite ike uche. Did keshi not invite ike uche for nation's cup? What did ike uche contribute to the team? Did we not win the nation's cup with ike uche warming the bench? Strangely enough, same ike uche that is making you loose your sense went to score goals for his club few weeks after the nation's cup. What form did he suddenly develop in his club that he couldn't show during the nation's cup? Pple like u will never come to terms with the reality that club form doesn't always translate to national team performance. If the nff is as hateful and full of bile like u and they don't want nigeria's futball to develop, they will heed your advice.

mikeansy:

Pep Guardiola played football at the highest level and captained Barcelona!

He did not come from no where.

And got banned for taking performance enhancing drugs due to his health issues. So had a short lived playing career. Just fely like that had to be added.

the way forward is for us to build our league