Oliseh –Enyeama saga: When the art of diplomacy fails


BY KUNLE SOLAJA

Last week, things began to fall apart (apologies to late Chinua Achebe) in the camp of the Super Eagles. Before the 2-0 crumbling to Congo on Thursday, there had been an anti climax when Vincent Enyeama had a row with the coach leading to the announcement of his retirement from the national team. There have been different versions of what led to the crisis.

But one thing has surfaced from the versions from the two men at the centre of the show: attitude problems. Incidentally, both were at one point or the other, the captains of the Super Eagles. Like most current and the immediate past players of the Super Eagles, Vincent Enyeama and Sunday Oliseh have attitude problem.

Perhaps, a brief background will help the reading public understand the issue which may resurface in future. It is almost a common knowledge that a typical Super Eagles’ player is arrogant. Even, the then Governor Rotimi Amaechi remarked as such while addressing the audience at the 2011 AIT Football Awards in Port Harcourt. His statement came from his interaction with the players when he was the chairman of the Presidential Task Force in 2010.

Others have made similar remarks. Kunle Salami, a respected colleague once told me of how it was difficult to interview Mikel Obi in London after Chelsea’s FA Cup win in 2009. It took the intervention of a higher calibre player, Didier Drogba, for Mikel to grant the interview.

There have been many of such instances. Colin Udoh, though very close to the players as a former media officer of the team has had similar experience when he was challenged by Mikel Obi in the aircraft that brought the team back from Sudan after the unexpected 1-0 loss. His offence: Twitting that the team did not deserve to qualify for the last AFCON having gotten a mere one point from the obtainable nine at the time.

In my 30 years as a sports journalist, I have found it easier to interact with higher profiled footballers abroad than with a Nigerian player who ordinarily should be my focus and perhaps, the main reason for my attending most of the international competitions. It was easier to approach a Pele, Maradona, David Beckham, Ronaldo and Messi for a chat or even photography and autograph than to do the same with the least profiled Super Eagles’ player.

Therefore, if tomorrow, Vincent Enyeama becomes the Super Eagles’ coach, the same attitude complaint we all possibly have about Sunday Oliseh, will be replicated. It is a case of what goes round comes round.

The Oliseh-Enyeama tango is not entirely a strange incident. We had it in a lower proportion between Stephen Keshi and Joseph Yobo – another tango of former skipper cum coach (Keshi) and an out of favour captain (Yobo).

Like I remarked two years ago in similar case of Keshi and Yobo, both Oliseh and Enyeama also have their share of the blame. The NFF also have a role to play before the hitherto innocuous actions will snowball into team disintegration and we all begin to analyze the causes of our failure to get to the next AFCON and or qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

I have chosen to take on the coach first. I concede to him the right to choose the players he requires for any assignment. He also has the right to choose who should captain his team. We have seen instances, even abroad, when team handlers hand the captain’s armband to any player of their choice.

But while conceding to him the right to choose materials necessary for any assignment at hand, he must also note the importance of communication and management. Oliseh should not just be a coach; he must also be a manager, even if the NFF, his employers, did not so designate him.

Experienced coaches act as diplomats. As former two-time British Prime Minister once remarked, “diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions”. The coach needs tact in executing his powers over players. Borrowing phrase from Isaac Newton, “tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy”.

I had listened to Oliseh’s comments on SuperSport during the 2013 African Nations Cup in South Africa just before Cote d’Ivoire’s group match with Tunisia. The Ivorian captain, Didier Drogba, was not in the starting line-up. Oliseh remarked that it was customary that captains were informed by coaches of their exclusions.

Last week, he should have just done what he preached. Oliseh should have called Enyeama aside to inform him that he had appointed a new captain at least for the match at hand or even on permanent basis. Making the announcement in the presence of all amounts to publicly pulling down his hitherto captain. That was a major mistake Oliseh has to admit.

Poor communication affects managerial skill and could eventually lead to disintegration of a team. Some players are reportedly lining up behind their beleaguered captain. This may be inevitable in the Super Eagles if order is not restored. Stephen Keshi experienced this before while on the saddle in Togo. His inability to handle success and also rally players around himself became his major undoing.

Like the Latin phrase ‘Festina lente’ which translates to ‘make haste slowly,’ one will advise Oliseh to tread softly while exercising his authority. Oliseh needs to control his temperament. He should remember that it was his hot temper that caused his unceremonious exit from the Super Eagles which he captained till the 2002 AFCON in Mali where he reportedly insulted even the then sports minister.
He has seen it all from all perspectives as a player, a captain and now chief coach. At the level he is now, he is more of a manager and should understand the management of materials he is employing and deploying.
This will avert a possible players’ mutiny which a former Super Eagles’ technical adviser, Thijs Libregts, once had in his native country, The Netherlands.
Libregts qualified his country for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, but had to be sacked few weeks to the event owing to players’ mutiny. In the two years he handled the star-studded Dutch team, he was not popular among the older players, notably Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Ronald Koeman and Jan Wouters.
Gullit led the revolt after one of the World Cup qualifying games, with Finland in Helsinki – a game won by the Dutch. Gullit asked the coach to leave the dressing room so that the players could talk more freely.
After the eventual qualification, it was obvious Libregts was not commanding the confidence of his players, leading to his sack on March 19, 1990. He went to court which ruled that since he had lost confidence of his players, he could not expect his contract to be upheld to allow him manage the team to the World Cup. This should be instructive to coaches as they ought to be source of motivation to the players.

And to Enyeama, exclusion from the team or the announcement of an ‘interim’ captain should not have warranted an outburst. Take England for instance, captains are changed almost at the whims and caprices of whoever was the manager.
He would not have had the audacity to challenge his club’s manager if he were dropped in any game. If club managers are to be respected, national team managers even deserve more. As a senior player who one day could take up a managerial appointment, he should by now begin to cultivate the art of giving due respect to the national team manager.
A simple act of calling up the coach to express his feelings could have saved Enyeama and the entire team the current act of dancing naked in the public. The impression now is that Enyeama may have instigated some players.
This should not be. I cannot imagine the manager making a public apology to player, even if he feels ill treated. I advise Enyeama to put a call to the coach. I believe as gentlemen, they will resolve their differences.

As there were claims that Enyeama travelled to Belgium at the instance of the NFF president who was with him at his mother’s funeral two days earlier, Enyeama should have at least waited for the NFF boss to arrive or put a call across before his public announcement of international retirement.

Having put up 13 years of service and with 101 record caps, he should be a more mature player who also deserves a befitting farewell match as done to players in other climes. The announcement on the social media is not cast on stone.

The gentleman goalkeeper, who is also acclaimed by Lionel Messi, should reconsider his decision. His 101 international caps are not just enough. That only makes him Nigeria’s most capped player. Dear Vincent Enyeama, there are still heights to scale, even on the continent. Enyeama is just the second joint most capped African goalkeeper alongside Tunisia’s Shobeir Ahmed (1984 -1996).

Even with retirement in view after 2017 AFCON as was claimed he had told Oliseh, he can still assail the 103 caps of Egypt’s former goalkeeper, Nader El-Sayed (1992 -2004) to truly be Africa’s number one goalkeeper.

He deserves a better ceremonial match which can spur even upcoming players to wish to assail his records. The NFF should intervene and reconcile Oliseh and Enyeama for the greater interest of Nigerian football and no one should be made to publicly lose face.



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