As the race for who will replace Jose Peseiro as coach of the senior national team of Nigeria hots up, following the announcement by the NFF on the vacancy in the role, a lot of coaches have indicated their interest in the job, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been receiving applications from coaches since making an announcement calling for applications. The idea is to name the new coach before the friendly games against Ghana and Mali respectively.
Super Eagles will take on Ghana on Friday, 22nd March while the game against Mali will be played on Tuesday, 26th March at the same venue in the city of Marrakech. Already a list of players for the game has been made public by the NFF.
Despite that there is still no clarity on who will be on the touchline when the team play the games, and even though Austine Eguavoen who is the technical director of the football house is the favourite to lead the team, a new coach will likely be in place before the game.
One coach who has thrown his hats in the ring is the former captain of the team Sunday Oliseh, who had a seven months spell as the coach of the team between July 2015 and February 2016.
Speaking on Channels Sports handled by veteran Nigerian journalist Ken Ochonogor, Oliseh said he is open to the role if he is needed to fill in the role by the NFF. ” If Nigeria needs my services like we are doing today now with Ken I will be ready to help if the conditions are right”, he said.
However his biggest obstacle will certainly be the way his first attempt at the job ended in fiasco and so many toxic moments, which includes falling out with senior players of the team, and also later went public with the NFF before quitting his role.
Only recently, a senior player in the team back then John Obi Mikel lifted the lid on how it was working with the former Juventus midfielder, who he said became confrontational at the very first meeting with the players.
Mikel described Oliseh as “bitter”, “jealous”, and “had no respect for speaking to anybody”.
“He (Oliseh) had absolutely no clue of how a manager is. He was a fantastic guy in his playing days, but he was a terrible coach. He absolutely had no clue of what he was doing,”Mikel said in his podcast.
“The players never understood anything he was doing, and he did not know what he was doing. He was just confused because he just came in and destroyed the team togetherness.
“He was easily the worst manager I played under”.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman