A cross section of players of the senior national team of Nigeria have kicked against the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to sack coach of the team Gernot Rohr.
Rohr has been told his services is no longer needed and he has already communicated via text messages to his players wishing them the best in their future endeavours.
Reacting to the news which was first revealed by this portal, a senior player in the team faulted the timing of the sack insisting that the players knew what went wrong during the qualifiers that made the team play poorly.
” We are few weeks to camping for the Africa Cup of Nations. Then the tournament and the World Cup play off. Sacking our coach now makes no sense. We know why we played poorly during the World Cup qualifiers. It wasn’t Rohr’s fault”, he said.
Another player who recently fell out of favour voiced same sentiments saying the players need to look themselves in the face and say the truth on why the team played poorly during the World Cup qualifiers.
” If as a group we decide to be honest many will tell you Rohr isn’t the issue. He did his best to carry all along but some players have people in high places and what they can’t do at their clubsides is what they are comfortable doing in camp. Most times a day to game or even the morning before games”, he said.
A goalkeeper in the same team also shared his view on the decision calling it a poor decision by all standard and like the others warns the NFF of the implications of sacking Rohr now.
” Africa Cup Of Nations is in January. We don’t have a coach three weeks to the start of camping. This is poor timing and the NFF should know this. They know how they divided the team and it showed on the pitch. This is beyond Rohr”, he concluded.