Ajibade Olusesan 
…says German coach can’t take Eagles beyond qualifiers
…flays NFF over poor welfare for players
Ex-international Friday Elaho is not impressed with the work of Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr despite the team winning their first two games in the World Cup qualifiers. He said although the players should be commended for the victory against Liberia and Cape Verde, their overall performances in those two games showed the team is far from being perfect. He said Rohr has been at the helms for more than five years but the squad is still lacking in tactical identity. He stated that there was an obvious lack of cohesion in the team’s movement during matches and there is no clear-cut pattern since the German has been the manager. He reasoned that the performance of the squad in major tournaments showed he lacks the capacity to operate at the highest level and the Eagles are bigger than such mediocrity.
He said, “I have always said that our problem is the coach; it is not enough for you to win games, you don’t need to give us bad football just because we like to win. I think we need improvement, we have the talent, we have the players to always get you that top performance.
“That’s why we don’t do well in major tournaments since this man came in; look at the last World Cup and the AFCON in 2019; the team faltered badly because of the tactical deficiency of the coach. I don’t think he has that quality to operate at that level; he hasn’t improved, we have to see differences in the tactical aspect of the team, the way the side is structured, let us see the beauty of the game in the way the Eagles play. Up till now, we don’t know the pattern the Super Eagles are playing under Rohr; if we go to the Nations Cup today, you will see that the performance of the team will be ‘zero’ because the man doesn’t have that quality.
“Who are the countries you play against during qualifiers, smaller footballing nations but when it comes to when it matters most or when they play against teams with quality where the technical know-how of the coach is expected to be the difference you will see that the team will fail.” He said the coach has no interest in developing Nigerian football with the way he has consistently overlooked local players. He said as the technical adviser, he should provide the backbone for the growth of the domestic league players by giving them exposure with the national team appearances.
He said very many players from the league became stars when erstwhile coach Clemence Westerhof was in charge because the Dutch created the platform for them to fight for the jerseys with their foreign-based counterparts. “You have been there for five years and you cannot say two or three players from the local league are in your team, why are you there? You are employed as the technical adviser to all the national teams, you are not there to just collect money but to also help develop our football. You invited 30 players for the last two matches, how many home-based players were in the squad? Who will now expose them? How would they grow and have the opportunity of becoming foreign-based players? “Westerhof became a success when he started looking inwards and exposed local players; he didn’t rely on the professionals from overseas, many players from the Nigerian league were given the chance at the Algiers 1990 and Senegal 1992 Nations Cup,” he said. The former Brondby of Denmark star also reserved some harsh words for the Nigeria Football Federation over the shabby manner they are handling the welfare of the players.
He particularly berated the remarks credited to the President of the NFF, Amaju Pinnick, where he was alleged to have said the players should count themselves lucky for representing the country instead of haggling about money. “What we have now is a shame,” he said. “Late Patrick Okpomo, the Secretary, and the Chairman of the NFA Anthony Ikazoboh never owed us a dime. You would get your bonus on the evening of the match day. There is no reason why the NFF should be owing the players or the coaches. Who is paying these players and the coaches? Is it government or do you have sponsors for that? Let us have the information.
“So they picked these players from the streets to represent the country so that they would not pay them their bonuses? You picked the coaches so that you would no pay them their salary? So that is what they do in Brazil, Argentina, England, and the rest of those footballing countries? I think that’s a wrong statement from the NFF President if truly he said that.”
