Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation Shaibu Amodu has reiterated that he has nothing personal against out-of-contract Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, despite asking him to stop ‘hanging around’ as the Eagles coach, SL10.com reports.

Amodu himself a former Eagles coach and who was incidentally Keshi’s boss when both men qualified Nigeria for the 2002 World Cup, has been in the news lately, asking his former assistant to ‘stay on as a beggar’ if he had no reputation, after he (Keshi) failed to qualify the country for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

But despite widely reported criticism, Amodu, a four-time coach of the Eagles has explained that he has nothing personal against Keshi while describing the former Mali coach as his brother.

“Keshi is my brother, I love him and I like him and every day I will talk good about him,” Amodu said of Keshi.

But despite his show of camaraderie towards the embattled Keshi, Amodu insists that the former Eagles captain should announce he is quitting the Super Eagles coaching job and leave the space for someone else.

“The situation as it is today, for me, if I were him, does not permit that I continue on the job. I would have just said ‘thank you Nigerians, sorry I’ve failed, but I can try another time but let another person try now’. But this is my personal opinion and it is not official. The NFF will still decide what they want to do with him,” Amodu added.

Last week Amodu had expressed his disappointment over the continued stay of Keshi as the Eagles coach despite his public rejection by the NFF. The NFF had asked the former coach of Togo to move on but he was reinstated following a directive by President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the Nations Cup qualifying match away to Congo.

Since Amodu made his view public, several notable and well meaning Nigerian football experts have called on Keshi to move on. A former coach of The Gambia and now the Director of the Pepsi Football Academy who spoke with The PUNCH last week asked Keshi to honourably step aside as he had no moral justification to stay on the job. Another former Eagles coach Chief Adegboye Onigbinde also told reporters last week that he had personally sent a private message to Keshi advising him to honourable move on the moment he was forced back on the job against the wish of the NFF.

Samson Siasia who took over the Eagles job midway into the qualifiers for the 2012 Nations Cup was sacked immediately he failed to qualify the Eagles for the African competition.

SOURCE:
http://www.punchng.com/sports/keshis-my-brother-but-has-failed-amodu-insists/