Former Flying Eagles coach Samson Siasia has revealed his plans to improve the Super Eagles when he finally takes over as coach.


The 2008 Olympic silver winning coach told our correspondent in Lagos on Monday that he was aware of the difficulty in building a new team and added that getting the right home-based players for the Eagles would be tough.


Siasia has been tipped as the possible replacement for coach Lars Lagerback and the Nigeria Football Federation has demanded that the Eagles should include home-based players. The players were sidelined by Lagerback when Nigeria featured at the World Cup in South Africa.


”I don‘t think we have the players with the quality to be in the Eagles,” the former Nantes forward said.


”It‘s going to take a while to improve on the quality of the players. The way the domestic league is structured has not helped the players to attain a level of professionalism which is necessary when featuring at any international engagement.


”It will take some time and a lot of work before the home-based players can raise their standard to an international level.


”We have to spend some time together with the players for them to play the way we want. Their competition level is still at a poor level but it can be corrected if we keep the players together for a long time.”

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100804254592

i have a lot of hope in Siasia. i hope he gets the job. his teams have all played exciting football.

supereagle:

Former Flying Eagles coach Samson Siasia has revealed his plans to improve the Super Eagles when he finally takes over as coach.


The 2008 Olympic silver winning coach told our correspondent in Lagos on Monday that he was aware of the difficulty in building a new team and added that getting the right home-based players for the Eagles would be tough.

Siasia has been tipped as the possible replacement for coach Lars Lagerback and the Nigeria Football Federation has demanded that the Eagles should include home-based players. The players were sidelined by Lagerback when Nigeria featured at the World Cup in South Africa.


”I don‘t think we have the players with the quality to be in the Eagles,” the former Nantes forward said.

”It‘s going to take a while to improve on the quality of the players. The way the domestic league is structured has not helped the players to attain a level of professionalism which is necessary when featuring at any international engagement.


”It will take some time and a lot of work before the home-based players can raise their standard to an international level.

”We have to spend some time together with the players for them to play the way we want. Their competition level is still at a poor level but it can be corrected if we keep the players together for a long time.”

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100804254592

These are the same truths that Amodu told us during the WC qualifiers and the nations cup. But the super eagles fans ate him alive for speaking the truth. Now that someone as highly respected as Samson Siasia, who is a fan favorite has said exactly the same things, I hope some of us will stop deluding ourselves into believing that our home based players are already ready for full international achievement. We need to stop deluding ourselves and speak the truth so as to plan properly.

^^
Amodu was right and I think he was shortchanged. but that aside the only way home based players can gain experience is by exposure. in a world cup year i thot Amodu would have told the fools in NFF that the nations cup was not important and that the established players should rest for that tournament while he took fringe players trying to break into the Eagles to the Nations cup. without testing uncapped players in a competitive atmosphere you will never know if they are up to international standard or if they can stand the strain.
which would we have rather reached the semi-finals between the nations cup and the world cup? if you do not give youth a chance then you will have to keep playing old players till they drop dead. the problem with Amodu eventually was just that. he did not try to refresh his team. he did not discover one new player. he just kept on plodding ahead with the same old unsuccessful crew. he needed desperately a strong injection of fresh blood and did not have a clue where to look.
another problem Amodu had was that he preferred using our so-called "best" players even if they could not gel as a team. football is a team sport and the team that plays the best usually does well. Argentina at the World cup used their best players and we all saw how Germany hammered them. One on one the Argentines were bigger names but poor as a team.
i wish Siasia all the best and i really hope he gets the job. he has proven himself time and again at the junior levels and it is now time for him to step up.

^^^^

Thank you my friend, how does one gain experience? by either making the mistakes yourself or learning from those who already made series of mistakes.

@honeric01
experience (personal experience) is usally the best teacher. we are not willing to give the guys in the local league the chance but we expect wonders from them. its a fundamental flaw in our reasoning. in 1990 when we failed to qualify for the WC Westerhof jettisoned some of the old brigade and took guys like Amokachi (home based at the time), Thompson Oliha (home based at the time), Uche Okechukwu, Aloy Agu (home based at the time) and others to the 1990 nations cup. does anyone recall that these relatively inexperienced players got to the final and even went on to become the bedrock of our national team?

^^

Bottomline, Nigerians of nowadays lack that patient, we want to win, we like to boast, so winning anyhow is now like a plague to us.

kilakhan:

@honeric01
experience (personal experience) is usally the best teacher. we are not willing to give the guys in the local league the chance but we expect wonders from them. its a fundamental flaw in our reasoning. in 1990 when we failed to qualify for the WC Westerhof jettisoned some of the old brigade and took guys like Amokachi (home based at the time), Thompson Oliha (home based at the time), Uche Okechukwu, Aloy Agu (home based at the time) and others to the 1990 nations cup. does anyone recall that these relatively inexperienced players got to the final and even went on to become the bedrock of our national team?

Well said! However I'm not surprised by his utterances cos Siasia is not really a believer in local talents. The majority of the players he took to AYC 2005, Holland 2005, Beijing 2008 & Egypt 2009 were foreign based.

Anyway foreign or home based, we need younger players in the Super Eagles and I don't understand the fixation with the domestic pro-league cos believe it or not, it takes a lot of connection/persön know person, note-carrying & settlement to get into teams in the Pro-league during the pre-season trials. . .Ask Obafèmi Martins. I even know this from the experience of an ex-neigbour who played for Sunshine Stars. Must all the invited home-based players be from the Pro-league? Players in the Pro-league are not necessary better than those playing in the Amateur league. We have many good young players playing in the Amateur leagues that have been discovered in age group competitions for us. eg Ramon Azeez & Sanni Emmanuel were playing for Amateur Clubs and they were by far the best performers in our U-17 team despite the presence of pro league veterans like Stanley Okoro, Ajagun, Ojabu etc. 

My point is pro-league, amateur league, U-17 or U-21. . .invite outstanding/standout players to camp & let them fight for their jersey after all we know our peculiar age cheating problem. Experience is important but overrated.

i hear Lagerback has finally turned down an extension of his contract. i am keeping my fingers crossed that the numbskulls in NFF will give Siasia the job. also praying that they dont lump him with dead wood like Amokachi and Eguavoen!