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Former
Nigerian star, Humphrey Edobor, believes that the poor sequence of
results posted in recent months by the Super Eagles cannot be blamed on
the team’s playing personnel but, rather, entirely on those charged
with the responsibility of running football in Nigeria.

The Super Eagles
have been far from impressive since the start of the year, beginning
with the Africa Cup of Nations tournament, in Angola, where they
secured yet another third-place finish – their fourth in the past five
edition of the tournament – as well as at the World Cup in South Africa
where they failed to advance beyond the group stage. Just last month,
the Super Eagles suffered a lone goal defeat at the hands of Guinea in
an 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, thus jeopardizing their
chances of qualifying for the tournament, to be co-hosted by Equatorial
Guinea and Gabon.

But Edobor insists
the players are not to be blamed for the team’s inadequacies. “I played
the game so I’m not going to criticize any player but the management,”
Edobor told Sports flight, a sports programme on City FM 105.1, where
he also hailed the selection of Samson Siasia as the new coach of the
Super Eagles. “I am very impressed that the voice of the people have
been heard and we will now have our own coach to take the team to any
competition,” he said.

Battle of the coaches

Edobor, who was a
regular fixture in the national team during the late 80s, also
dismissed the idea that foreign coaches are better than their Nigerian
counterparts. “You see it’s not that the foreign coaches are better but
I see our coaches as far more better because they know the players
better than the expatriates,” he said. “I am impressed that Siasia is
the chosen one and I wish him all the best.”

Siasia was selected ahead of Stephen Keshi following a one-on-one
interview session with the technical committee of the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF). But Edobor picked holes with the NFF’s selection
process. “To me that was not fair enough,” he said. “Both of them
played locally and internationally, they gave their best for the
country and, also, actually best of friends. Even though they (NFF)
made their choice by succumbing to the wish of the people but that was
not the best way to go about it putting both friends head-to-head. Any
of them would have been good for the job having played the game,
coached the game and they know the game. They should have just
identified one and discussed with him instead of that kind of contest.”