And so finally, the romance of the Nigeria Football Association with ex super eagles gaffer, Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh ended on Thursday night the 25th day of February, 2016 when the latter threw in the towel by resigning his appointment as the Eagles' gaffer. While this came as a surprise to many, those of us in the know saw the cracks in the wall of the fragile relationship between the beleagered manager and his employers. From the Enyeama and Emenike saga to the Rwanda fiasco, it was only a matter of time before the implosion occurs and what a time than an impending double header with the Pharoahs of Egypt in an AFCON Qualifier. Sunday Oliseh for all his tactical prowess which is yet to be brought to the fore in his short stint with the national team, it needs to be said, did himself in with the way he handled some of the issues one of which is the Enyeama issue. As if that was not good enough, he embarked on social media frolic with a 10 minute long youtube rant that exposed his level of maturity. i would take the issues one after the other.
On the Enyeama issue, one of the hallmarks of successful coaches is the ability to manage difficult players and get the best out of them without upsetting the balance in the team. Oliseh had his erstwhile captain who had put in over ten glorious years of service to his father land, fresh from burying his mum with all the emotions attached to it and clearly in need of some sympathy and understanding from his manager, but chose a confrontational stance about it. A smart manager would have carefully managed the situation better than the way it was handled by the gaffer without upsetting the player himself or the fans. Expectedly, when the controversies came to the fore, majority of the fans pitched tent with the player. For a manager yet to find his footing or make a name in football management, the least expected of Sunday Oliseh was to quietly face his job and let the results speak for him. Unfortunately, he found it very difficult to to do that and so, the brick bats kept going back and forth until that ill fated youtube rant of the manager. knowing the power blocs in the Eagles' camp, it was only a matter of time before some of the players started demonstrating acts of petulance towards the coach and outright disenchantment with his methods and Emmanuel Emenike was the next to do so. How many of the players in the Eagles' fold would have followed suit in the coming months remains unclear but the stage was set for another unfolding drama perhaps with the possible failure of the team to make it to the AFCON tournament next year.
The aftermath of the drama in Rwanda during the CHAN tournament where the team was reportedly abandoned by the NFF is one worthy of mention. Oliseh had come up again perhaps trying to deflect some of the crticisms against him, criticised his employers for not showing enough support to the team and bemoaned the lack of logistic support for the team and cited same as the reason for the lack lustre outing of his wards at the CHAN tourrnament. He went ahead to state that he spent 4,000 dollars to feed the team. While the latter excuse is certainly legitimate, the public relations implications of impugning the capacity of your employers are far reaching. The reaction of the glass house to this accusation by Oliseh was characteristically knee-jerk, pedestrian and ill advised as usual. Oliseh was reminded that the likes of Amunike and Siasia were not supported but won trophies. Oliseh went ahead again to water down the performancxe of the team at CHAN by stating that the CHAN tournament is a developmental tournament aimed at grooming the home lads. While this assertion might find some currency and endorsement from developmental football buffs, it is indeed laughable to suggest that it is totally developmental and no more. For one, the FIFA Co-efficient of teams participating which is the bedrock of the FIFA ranking are usually built up and boosted by such tournaments. Nigeria has been floundering in the rankings and is indeed in need of an upward surge in the rankings for easier groupings at CAF & FIFA organised tournaments. It was therefore imperative that the country does well in such competitions to boost its individual coefficient. It is therefore not within the purview of Sunday Oliseh to determine which tournament is important or not.
These public relations clangers are a clear indictment of Oliseh's capacity to manage the Eagles. Truth is, no matter how tactically or technically gifted you are as a coach, you need the right attitude to excel one of which is patience which Oliseh does not possess. Samson Siasia, arguably Nigeria's most successful coach has imbibed this virtue of patience and excelled three times as a manager, the latest being the qualification of the under 23 team for the Olympic footballing tournament and winners of the under 23 Nations cup held some time ago. He was able to record these successes because he was in large part, focused on delivering the goods no matter the circumstances. He was owed salaries and completely neglected by the glass house. It was reported that the players themselves were washing their kits themselves as there was no spare kits for training. Siasia was at a time feeding the players himself. How could we forget so soon how he single handedly sourced for funds from his home state government, Bayelsa to prosecute the 2005 under 20 world youth championship where he came second behind Argentina.
Oliseh seems to have this convoluted and warped belief of entitlement to respect but has forgotten that respect in this clime is usually earned and as a coach, you earn it when you deliver the goods on the pitch. Struggling against Minnows like Swaziland and Tanzania does not bode well for your CV as a coach of the most populous black nation. Just hours before he resigned, Oliseh criticised un-named pundits who he felt were misleading the fans. He has certainly forgotten that coaches are criticised all the time. from your game programmes, team selection, preparation to tactical inputs, you are scrutinised to the latter. Therefore, as a former pundit himself where he has criticized coaches, he ought to know that criticisms are part of the job and you only earn a right of reply to your critics and traducers when you have been able to justify your selection, preparation and programmes on the pitch with the right results. Jose Mourinho is the defending champion of the EPL and he is out of job at the moment as unbelievable as it sounds. Rafa Benitez is jobless at the moment despite recording about 17 wins and only three losses in his short stint with Real Madrid.It is results-oriented business and you get fired when the results dont go your way. When the results are not good enough, your pedigree wont matter as you are judged based solely on the results on the table. But what is the pedigree of the man in question here? apart from the reputation he built as a player and his excellent punditry before his appointment, the man has no coaching CV to latch onto to demand respect. At best, he can plead for support and no more. Such air of arrogance no matter how qualified you are should not be associated with a coach and it is on this score i would fault his tenure as coach of the Eagles.
As for the NFF, you signed a five year contract with the manager. That simply means that you expected some periods of development of the team with the coach. The glass house reportedly requested for the submission of a 5 year developmental programme from Oliseh which convinced them to hire him. Few Months down the line, you are already owing the coaching crew salaries, owing players allowances and at cross roads as to how to evolve an engaging developmental programme for the team. Oliseh had reportedly kicked against the use of the dreaded Technical committee in his contract and same was granted. What now informed the actions of the ever present Cris Green led-Technical Committe? indeed what is the function of the technical committee? is it an oversight function on the powers and programmes of the Manager? is it merely supervisory? what is the plenitude of powers reserved for the Technical Committee and how do they exercise such powers? The Technical committee had reportedly threatened to resign if Oliseh was not sacked following his youtube rant but they somehow stayed on. I believe this development marks the coming to fruition of their wish. The same Technical Committee that almost sacked Keshi during the 2013 AFCON Tournament before providence fought on his side and shamed them all. Any coach worth his salt would demand total control of the team he is in charge of or nothing since the buck stops at his table. The coach takes the praise as well as the blame for the performance of the team so why would you inflict another body on the coach to determine the programmes and inputs of the coach? if i am not allowed to invite my own players and select my own team, why would you hold me responsible for the team's performance? The NFF as a body needs some serious soul-searching here. The same Technical Committee that has been the albatross of Nigerian coaches has come out once again to hunt our football.
The revelations made by Oliseh regarding the pressure from some members of the Technical Committee to invite certain players to camp and play them even when they are not qualified to play for Nigeria is instructive and should not be dismissed with a wave of the hand. We have all been aware of this body of vested interests in Nigerian football who have been holding the development of our football to ransome. westerhoff complained about it, Bonfrere Jo complained about. Now, Oliseh is re-echoing same. For a body saddled with the responsibility of overseeing our football affairs to be found wanting in the discharge of its duties is most unfortunate. Not providing the enabling environment for your coaches to work in is an indictment of capacity of the NFF itself and should be condemned in toto. It is also difficult to see how the coaches can thrive with their backlog of salaries unpaid.The NFF also reportedly made arrangements behind Oliseh's back to hire Herve Renard. While it is their total prerogative to hire and fire their employees, they have no moral rights to do so when the salaries of your employees have remained unpaid. Oliseh had cleverly inserted a clause in his contract that entitles him to have a say on the match venues of the Eagles in Nigeria. The NFF had however, unilaterally chosen Kaduna as venue of the all important AFCON Qualifier against Egypt without consulting the coach. Oliseh was also reportedly told to report directly to Amodu Shuaibu. Breach of contract of employment by any of the parties to the agreement completely entitles the other to terminate the contract and this is what Sunday Oliseh has done here. The question then remains; What happens to our football now with the all important double header against Egypt?
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