The Nigeria Football Federation has been asked to consider sacking the coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi, before the next 2015 African Cup of Nation (AFCON) qualifier second leg match against Sudan.
On Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, a sports editor with the Sun Newspaper, Mr George Aluo, said that Keshi’s performance in last Saturday’s match against Sudan was very poor and that the coach deserves nothing but a sack.
He, however, said that the result was not a surprise, as the coach had added five new players to the team in a game that was considered so crucial.
“Eagles were poor. We must be frank about it and their being poor was not a surprise. If you look at the list, you will begin to wonder. Why bringing five new players in a game that is very crucial?
“Five men that had not played for Nigeria before now. You begin to wonder why the coach should be experimenting at a time that we needed to salvage a bad situation after losing a game in Calabar and drawing away to South Africa,” Mr Aluo said.
The woeful performance of the Eagles in the away game in Sudan has generated lots of reactions.
Some Nigerians had attributed the inclusion of the new names to the fact that most Super Eagles players had injuries and were ruled out by the coach.
Take A Walk
But the sports editor said that Keshi had released the list before the players were injured, blaming the coach for the poor performance of the team.
“Keshi is getting it diametrically wrong. So, the result we are getting is as a result of poor planning on the part of the technical crew of the Super Eagles.
“Keshi to a large extent did well before and during the nations cup and there was an element of luck which saw us winning the nation’s cup. Throughout the tournament, the best game we played was against Cote D’Ivoire.
“Since after the nation’s cup, the team had not performed well. The only game we have won since then was the match against Bosnia and after that time, we have not won any game.
“The only match we have won convincingly was the game against Ethiopia,” he said.
He insisted that the board of the NFF should get a technical adviser for the Super Eagles before the Sudan match, stressing that the business of football is about hiring and firing.
“A coach is as good as his last game.
“The NNF hands are tired because Keshi has got godfathers who are working for him. If not for those godfathers by now, Keshi should have been history. He should know that if he is not sacked, he should take a walk.
“He has failed the nation and has ran out of ideas and this is a self-inflicted injury because Keshi is not using some of our players for whatever reasons best known to him. You don’t bring new men from Austria China to come and play for this country where we have people who are playing top flight football in different parts of the world.
“For selfish reasons, Keshi does not want to bring back Ike Uche to the team. Obafemi Martins is scoring goals in America and so many other players that we could call on to come and salvage the situation for Nigeria so why shot the mouth of the team,” he said.
Mr Aluo pointed out that Nigeria was not lacking in players and stressed that the team would have performed better in Sudan if the coach had fielded the best legs.
At the moment, Stephen Keshi’s contract has not been renewed and the sports editor mentioned that the current leadership of the NFF was not a fan of Keshi, a condition that could affect the renewal of the contract of the coach who to a large extent has falling out of favour with football loving Nigerians.
