Sunday Oliseh Is Not A Miracle Worker- Adokiye Amiesimaka

Former Nigerian international, Adokiye Amiesimaka, has urged Nigerians to exercise patience with the new Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh.

Oliseh succeeded former teammate, Stephen Keshi, who was recently sacked as the Super Eagles coach after about just one month he was reappointed for the job.

The Super Eagles will travel to Tanzania in September to face the Taifa Stars in one of their AFCON qualifiers after winning their first game against Chad last month, and Oliseh is expected to introduce far-reaching changes in order to strengthen the team ahead of their next challenge.

“My worry is not about Oliseh; my worry is about the players he has to work with. We shouldn’t expect any magic from him because we do not have the players that are very knowledgeable in the sport. They may have the desire and the natural talent to play, but they lack the rudiments of football which Oliseh is not expected to teach them at the senior level,” Amiesimaka said on Wednesday.

“Our players should have gone through age grade football where they would have learnt the basics in the sport. But as it is, none of them have that required knowledge. That’s what it means to have youth development.

“He, however, stands a better chance of relying on the current Flying Eagles who were formerly in the U-17 team.”

The 1980 AFCON winner said the Nigeria Football Federation made the right choice in appointing the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder, insisting that the appointment did not need ratification from the technical department of the football body.

He said, “Oliseh is qualified to manage the Super Eagles. You don’t need a coaching certificate to manage the national team. Franz Beckenbauer, a former West Germany international, had no coaching certificate when he led Germany to World Cup glory in 1990. It is only in this part of the world that we lay so much emphasis on coaching certificates.

“Coaching is only needed at the youth level, where the players are taught the rudiments of football. But at the senior level, Oliseh will only need to manage the players, manage their egos and instil a playing concept or philosophy in the team. His major assignment will be to look for players that can fit into his strategies for the team.

“For anyone to be an assessor, he must be better qualified than the person he is assessing. The NFF has a technical department headed by Shaibu Amodu, but are the people in the department more qualified than Oliseh himself? Could they have objectively assessed Oliseh for the Eagles job?”

Amiesimaka also dismissed fears that Oliseh’s ego could have an adverse effect on the team, saying the new manager is in the best position to caution erring players.

“We all played pranks as children and Oliseh can’t be an exception. Once you become an adult, you start teaching the younger ones about what is right and wrong as if you never did wrong in your childhood days. But it’s normal,” he said.

“I don’t expect a dummy to be my national team coach; I would want a man with passion and character to be in charge of the team. Oliseh may have his weaknesses but the important point is to know when and how to use his strengths and weaknesses in any given circumstance. I won’t condemn a man because he has a temper as long as he knows how to manage it. Nobody is flawless.” Punch