New Super Eagles Chief Coach, Sunday Oliseh, has warned Nigerian football fans against seeing him as the messiah.
Sunday Oliseh
Speaking after signing a three-year contract to coach the national team, new Super Eagles manager, Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh, has warned Nigerian football fans against seeing him as the messiah that would single-handedly resuscitate the country’s football.
However, the boss assured that he would be over 100% committed to his job, adding that he had already started compiling a list of Nigerian players that have the potentials to make his team.
The former Super Eagles’ captain said only players at the first cadre on the Nigerian league and those playing at renowned football cubs in the world would make his team. He also took time to explain his choice of assistants, saying he would ensure his team has a cordial relationship with the NFF technical department and executive committee.
“Personally it is a great honour to be a coach of this great nation. My acceptance by the federation and Nigerians touches the heart and we are more than motivated to give our best for Nigeria. First of all, I am not coming as a messiah, or the man who knows it all. I cannot singularly turn Nigeria into Germany. But I am coming as a man who has come to serve his country and I will give a 150 per cent to it.
I think I owe it to you to explain why my assistants are carefully chosen by me. When we had to bring in an expatriate to serve in Nigerian football, I told the NFF president that I would not be party to the bringing in an expatriate who will come with a better than thou attitude here.
We need an expatriate who will be ready to work and who is hungry for victory. We need one who knows Africa and does not need time to acclimatize. That was how we arrived at Jean Francoise Luiscuito.
For Salisu, we needed him very seriously because he knows in and out of the league. Alloy Agu we also need because when you are talking of calmness and giving tactical advises to the coaches and goalkeepers, he fits in very well. That is why we are what we are as a team. It is obvious that the days are gone when we have individual players that can win matches for us out of their own individual efforts. That was what stood my own generation of Nigerian
The way it goes is that if you don’t have great individual players, you need a great coaching crew to compensate for what you don’t have. But we have potential to be the best in the world. That is what the coaching crew honestly believes. They were meticulously chosen for this job.
We have set up certain criterion for those who will play in our new Super Eagles from now on. One of them is that if you are not playing in the first division of the Nigerian league or any credible league in the world, you will not play for the Super Eagles.
There is an exception for those being promoted from the age grade teams. We need players who are only hungry and motivated. No player is doing Nigeria a favour by playing for the national team, just like I am not doing Nigeria a favour by coaching the Super Eagles. It is an honour to play for or coach Nigeria.”