Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr turned 65 on Thursday,
two days after his Super Eagles team suffered a
gut-punch style elimination from the World Cup at
the hands of perennial nemeses Argentina.
What a perfect birthday present it would have been
for the German if his team had managed to keep
the Argentines at bay for a few minutes longer to
seal a place in the World Cup round of 16.
Instead, they were left ruing missed opportunities
and packing their bags to head home, and Rohr
was left to reflect on a somber day, as most of his
players dispersed to various parts of Europe, while
a few waited to board their flight home to Nigeria.
As if those rueful ruminations were not bad enough,
there have been calls in certain quarters In Nigeria
for Rohr to be relieved of his duties.
Commentary in the media have dwelled on the
German's failure to make the tactical and personnel
changes required in the last few minutes to batten
the hatches and hold on for the point that would
have seen the Super Eagles advance.
Comparisons have also been made with the last
World Cup in Brazil, where the late Stephen Keshi, a
home-grown coach, took Nigeria to the round of 16
with way less support and preparation than Rohr
had with the current squad.
All of this sacking talk completely misses the mark
by failing to see the big picture, and instead,
reverting to the same knee jerk reaction that follows
every World Cup disappointment.
Why this should even be up for conversation points
to Nigeria's, and perhaps, Africa's continued failure
to establish anything beyond a tenuous toehold on
world football's biggest stage. No African side has
reached the last 16 in Russia.
In 1994, after Clemens Westerhof had spent the
previous five years building what amounts to
Nigeria's Golden Generation, he was frustrated into
leaving immediately after the country exited that
tournament.
Between the start of qualifying for the World Cup in
1998 and the end of the tournament, Nigeria had
three coaches. Bora Milutinovic, who eventually led
the team to France, barely waited for the final ball
to be kicked before going on his merry way.
In 2002, Shuaibu Amodu negotiated a tortuous
qualifying route, but was given the boot before
Adegboyega Onigbinde was handed the reins for
the tournament proper, and he took a scalpel to the
squad. By the end of the tournament, he too made
way.
For the 2010 tournament, Amodu again successfully
guided the Super Eagles through qualifying hoops,
and went as far as making it to the World Cup
draws before he too was shown the door with
months to go to the tournament. Swede Lars
Largerback led the team to South Africa in his
place, and was off back to Sweden by the time the
final whistle went.
This cycle of hire, fire, repeat and reboot every four
years does near irreparable damage both to the
psyche of players, and the continued good health of
the national team. Players are required to adjust to
a new boss almost every other year, learning new
tactics, working under different regimens.
Sometimes, on-field personnel changes that a new
coach implements breaks up the existing rhythm,
making it difficult for players to build any lasting
chemistry.
And then there is that much-recycled word
whenever a new coach takes the reins: "rebuilding".
Onigbinde, Christian Chukwu, Amodu, Samson
Siasia, Keshi, Sunday Oliseh and more recently
Rohr.
Since 2002, Nigeria has been stuck on a seeming
time warp of 'rebuilding'. And yet, the same core
group of players form the nucleus of the team each
time. Only Rohr, so far, has had the courage to
break from the mold and actually work towards a
proper long term plan by keeping his focus on
young players.
He has significantly lowered the average age of the
squad, found, developed and blooded a talented
teen in Francis Uzoho, who could end up manning
the goalpost for maybe the next 15-odd years, and
introduced a style of play that appears to be the
best way to exploit the personnel at his disposal.
In doing so, he qualified for the World Cup
unbeaten in the face of strong opposition from a
cast of past and present African champions. His
team may have looked listless against Croatia, but
second half friendly performances in the buildup to
the World Cup, and games against Iceland and
Argentina, showed that there is a spine, purpose
and method to the madness.
With a few additions and subtractions to the squad,
this team could be well-positioned to become the
second Golden Generation of Nigerian football.
Trying to toss all of that overboard for the sake of
a reboot would be just plain illogical.
By far the best way to celebrate Rohr's birthday is
to leave him alone to carry on with the job he has
done so far. It would be the best gift Nigerian
Football could give Rohr, not to mention Super
Eagles players and fans.

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