Nigeria Content Online

The Nigeria
Football Federation is not known for doing things in simple and
rational ways. Whether it is signing a new sponsor, inviting players to
national camp, calling a meeting of board members or choosing a camp
for the national team, it is always a complicated and difficult
process, and the last exercise did not prove any different.

Whereas football
minions Benin Republic sacked her coach a few days after the Angola
2010 African Nations Cup and named a new one a few days after, the NFF
called a national conference before Shuaibu Amodu was sacked as the
coach of the Super Eagles.

And before Swedish
Lars Lagerback was hired as replacement, an international conference
that took the officials of the federation to different parts of the
globe and also saw all manner of jobless coaches looking for retirement
benefits or a big pay day coming to Nigeria, was held.. There are
insinuations that our officials normally make simple processes
difficult because when they keep it simple and easy, they lose out on
estacodes they would have got from travelling and sitting allowances.

In the process of achieving their personal gain, they country, its image and citizens suffer.

An all comers affair

Imagine coaches
like Louis van Gaal, Guus Hiddink, Giovanni Trapatonni, and others who
we did not consult but whose names were being dropped to the extent
they were so incensed that they were almost calling us a nation of
liars.

And after days of
interviewing many former heavyweights who were either jobless, or in
coaching obscurity we settled for Lagerback.

His choice may not
be idle given the paucity of time and the fact that he has never worked
closely with Nigerians or Nigerian players before, neither does he have
any ilk of the people’s culture, but with co-competitors like former
England coach Goran Eriksson, Glen Hoddle and others in the league of
coaches other countries would not want to touch, Lagerback’s choice is
welcomed.

The fact that he is coming with a physical trainer, match analyst and another assistant shows that he means business.

With locals like
Austin Eguavon, Daniel Amokachi and Alloy Agu, Lagerback should be able
to avoid the mistakes that led to Amodu’s fall from grace.

And the Swede does
not need a whole decade of study to know the problem with the Super
Eagles and the way forward. A shortcut to solving his problem is
reading the Nigerian newspapers between November and today, he will get
all the arguments for against and where to start from.

New Super Eagles

For a start, the
coach will do himself and Nigerians a lot of favour by turning the
Super Eagles from a rehabilitation camp that it was under Amodu to a
Super Eagles where players are selected on form, fitness and
commitment, not on past pedigree, sentiment and public opinion they are
sponsored by the players and their agents.

One does not need
to be a coach or football analyst to know that Obafemi Martins, Joseph
Yobo, and Aiyegbeni Yakubu did not merit their places in the Angola
team, not because they are not good enough, but because as at December
that Amodu named them into the squad and January when they were playing
the Nations Cup, they were not fit.

The likes of Obinna
Nwaneri, Seyi Olofinjana, Chidi Odiah, Yusuf Mohammed and a few others
have definitely served Nigeria well in the past but football is about
current form and fitness, how they made the team to Angola is still a
mystery, but Lagerback will do himself and Nigeria a lot of good by
closing the door of the national team against them.

Eagles captain
Nwankwo Kanu has definitely served Nigeria well especially at the U-17
and U-23 levels; he has not been able to do same at the Super Eagles
level. Kanu has made two World Cup appearances for Nigeria, France’98
and Japan/Korea 2002, but hiscontributions on the field at the two
championships were not significant.

Kanu has also
played six Nations Cup tournaments for Nigeria, he has not scored a
goal, his overall contribution when measured on a scale of hundred is
less than average.

At Portsmouth, the
English Premiership side where he plays his club football, Kanu has not
been able to tie down a regular shirt despite the fact that many of the
talents in the team have left because of the acute financial problem
facing the club.

Since Kanu has not
thought it wise to quit when the ovation is loudest, Lagerback will be
doing him a great favour by helping make the decision that he does not
have the courage or the will to make.

Many have spoken of
Kanu’s influence on the younger players and how he motivates them;
Lagerback may include Kanu his team as an official or motivator, but as
a player, this is 2010, not 1999 or 2000.

If the coach has the courage to include the likes of Dele Adeleye,
Adefemi Olubayo, Mike Eneramo, Joseph Akpalla, Sani Emmanuel, and other
young blood in his team, Nigeria may be on the way to making a decent
appearance at the South Africa 2010 World Cup.