Pinnick Puts The Super Eagles Through A Nightmarish Picnic

by Fotbulnary 

Nigeria missed out on a second consecutive African Cup of Nations after it lost to Egypt in Alexandria on Tuesday in a qualifying round of the tournament that would be hosted by Gabon in 2017. Nigeria was also absent at Equatorial Guinea in 2015 where they missed out on the opportunity to defend the trophy won in South Africa in 2013.

The latest failure has its roots on the maladministration in the Nigeria Football Federation headed by Amaju Pinnick. Before a ball was kicked in the qualifiers in the middle of 2015, the seeds were already sown that the country might not qualify. The uncertainty over the future of Stephen Keshi continued in the early part of 2015 before he was finally confirmed as the coach on a two year contract that would take the country to the next Cup of Nations. With the uncertainty resolved after the mess that was the last qualifiers, the Super Eagles kicked off the qualifying round with a 2-0 win over Chad in Kaduna, with Egypt beating Tanzania in the other match in the group in Cairo.

However, little had Stephen Keshi settled into the two year contract that he signed that he was accused of applying for the vacant position of the Ivory Coast job. Suddenly, he was dismissed on the grounds that he breached the terms of his contract by applying for another job while he was still on the books of the football house.

It was this decision taken by the Amaju Pinnick led NFF board that laid the foundations for Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the next Cup Of Nations. That Keshi was not sacked for football reasons bordering on results on the field of play was bad enough. When he failed to qualify the Super Eagles for the 2015 Cup of Nations, he was not sacked, but because there have been an agenda on the part of Pinnick to get rid of Keshi, something besides football result had to be cooked up.

That Stephen Keshi was sacked was not the real issue, but sacking him in the middle of a qualifying campaign, and replacing him with an inexperienced and rash Sunday Oliseh further compounded what was already a complicated situation.

The former Super Eagles captain started his stint on the job by inviting players that were out of their depth, and completely out of form. For instance, Haruna Lukeman. The appointment of Sunday Oliseh brought about the dismantling of the structure of players that was on ground. Little wonder he fielded what could be term an experimental team when Nigeria were lucky to escape with a goalless draw against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. Whereas, a settled team would have been able to get a better result.

The struggles of the Super Eagles continued throughout the short reign of Sunday Oliseh because there was another round of experiment of players. Something that is common place in Nigerian football when a new coach is appointed. That Nigeria eventually struggled to overcome Swaziland in a World Cup qualifier late last year only confirmed the fact that he should not have been appointed in the first place.

The way Nigeria exited the CHAN tournament in Rwanda, and Oliseh’s reaction smacked off a coach that was not suited to the job of handling a national team. His temperament eventually got the better of him when he criticised the football house, and the media for the criticism that he came his way since he was appointed. That he eventually jumped before he was pushed caused further disruption for Nigeria’s qualifying campaign.

So Nigeria engaged a third coach for the qualifying campaign when Samson Siasia was brought in to savage what was left of a haphazard qualifying campaign. It was going well in the qualifiers in Kaduna, before the Super Eagles conceded a 91st minute equaliser against Egypt. The qualifying campaign was eventually over when Chad withdrew altogether, it meant Nigeria had to beat Egypt in Cairo, but they lost instead.

The president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick should take the blame for Nigeria’s failure to qualify, that the country eventually used three coaches to oversee less than six matches, and still failed to qualify is entirely the fault of Pinnick.

From the short and uneventful spell of Sunday Oliseh, it was clear that it should not have been appointed. The disruption caused by the coaching changes was the foundation of the country’s failure to qualify.

Ordinarily, every picnic ought to be an enjoyable affair, but Amaju Pinnick has succeeded in leading the Super Eagles through a bad and nightmarish picnic through his decisions. And it is one that would reverberate when the draws for the World Cup qualifiers is made. Because, Nigeria will fall further down the FIFA rankings and we can be sure that a difficult group awaits the country on the road to Russia 2018.

At present Nigeria have some exciting players coming through in the mode of Moses Simon of Belgian side Gent, Alex Iwobi of Arsenal, Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City, Victor Moses, Odion Ighalo of Watford, Leon Balogun of Mainz. While there are others that have not been discovered.

It is time for the NFF to get a competent coach that would build a team round the players coming through, and from Nigeria’s failure to qualify for three of the last four AFCON tournaments means a local coach is no longer the answer. The quest should be on how to bring in a foreign coach that would make objective decisions and that would have the tactical nous to take the Super Eagles to the next level.

Why Players Born Abroad Should Be The Future Of The Super Eagles

Over a decade ago, FIFA regulations prevented players who were either born or grew up abroad but who have African parentage or other nationality that did not switch nationality before the age of 21 from playing for the country of their parents birth. Nigeria did not suffer much from this regulation at the time, but the same cannot be said of some Francophone countries that lost key players to other countries. Senegal lost Patrick Vieira to France; Zidane to Algeria, Cape Verde lost Nani to Portugal and a host of other African countries lost players who have gone on to be world class players.

However, it was fitting that it was an African country that brought a proposal before the FIFA congress for the previous regulation to be changed. It was the Algerian FA that tabled a proposal that players that have dual nationality should be able to switch allegiance at any time without restriction of age. It did not come as a surprise that since the change, the Algerians have been the highest African beneficiary of this change, with more than half of the Algerian squad to the last World Cup in Brazil being players born in France. Also, other Francophone countries have benefited also from this change. Cape Verde has seen players that grew up in Portugal now part of the national team. Both the Island of Cape Verde and Algeria currently have the two best teams in Africa going by the latest FIFA rankings, and this has been achieved through their ability to court players that grew up in foreign countries under better football training.

In the case of Nigeria, it has been a mixed case as regard the number of players that have switched nationality. However, despite the slow pace at which players with Nigerian parents that were born abroad switch nationality, the trend is currently changing, the likes of Leon Balogun who has a German mother and a Nigerian father and a player at bundesliga side Mainz has been part of the national team set up for almost three years after he choose to play for Nigeria. The defender was part of the Mainz side that defeated Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena for the first time this season.

However the most high profile switch to date has been that of Alex Iwobi of Arsenal who happens to be the nephew of Nigerian legend Austin Jay Jay Okocha. The 19 year old has seen his stock grow in recent weeks after some stellar displays in Arsenal FA cup campaign, but it was his display against Barcelona at the Nou Camp and against Everton at Goodison Park when he opened his account for the gunners, that has made many to sit up and see what he is made up.

What is interesting about these players that grew up abroad is that their actual age can easily be ascertained because there are database of records. What this means is that they can be relied on for a number of years to form the nucleus of the national teams. A player that is truly nineteen has at least 15 years with the national team. If this approach is adopted in the way players are selected for the various national teams, it can further the development of football as planning with certain players would become easy as you know that these players would be around for a certain period of time without the fear that their performance would not decline because of a false age.

A clue of this is the recent turnover of players from Nigeria’s successes at the Under17 level. They have not gone on to replicate the same performances at a higher level because of a physical decline due to age. Some of the players from the 2007 winning Golden Eaglets have practically disappeared from football radar, meanwhile players like Real Madrid and Germany’s Toni Kroos from that tournament, and Bojan Krkic are still going strong in football. Even some of the players from the 2013 winning Golden Eaglet have not gone on to anything good in football terms. Only Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho can be said to be a shining light from that squad. While the jury is still out on how the players that won the 2015 tournament would turn out in a few years.

The only way for Nigeria football to overcome the scenario where players suddenly disappear from radar after a few performances is for the authorities and coaches to carry out a paradigm shift in focusing on players who have dual nationality but where born abroad, It is then actual sustainable football development can truly occur in terms of what Nigeria can achieve with the Super Eagles and other national teams.

Arsene Wenger: Between Arrogance and Aggression

Many within the Arsenal school of thought watched during the last summer transfer window as Arsene Wenger preached his sermon that team cohesion was better than any signing that he would make to improve the team on field display. While many where not overly convinced by his sermon which he continually preached most of last summer, inside the web of disillusion, there was a quiet confidence that a squad that won two consecutive FA cup was in a good condition to mount a sustained title challenge. The signing of Petr Cech aided in the increased belief that the team had indeed solved an important piece of the jigsaw that has militated against consistency over the last few seasons.

Despite the fact that this sermon of Arsene Wenger had several gaping holes, as the seasonal injuries to players was something he obviously refused to avert his mind to, because the season had barely begun when players started falling aside, and some of the players that would have added as a pivot of squad depth in the mode of Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky and Mikel Arteta have either not featured at all all season, or have just had fleeting performances here and there. While Danny Welbeck did not feature until the turn of the year. This turn of event meant that Arsenal had no adequate cover for Francis Coquelin as well as variety in attack. However, it was the injury to Santi Cazorla that few legislated for, and the ambidextrous Spaniard’s ligament injury in November contributed to Arsenal’s poor season. And a recurring Achilles problem has delayed the Spaniard return from injury.

When Arsene Wenger preached his unconvincing sermon of team cohesion over signings, he was clearly engaging in gambling. He gambled on the fact that players like Oliver Giroud, Theo Walcott, and Oxlade-Chamberlain would suddenly come good to consistently be amongst the goals. In short, he gave anticipated number of goals that these players would score when he spoke of goal targets for his forward and attacking midfielders. He gambled on the fact that a player like Cazorla that seldom got injured would stay fit all season.

All these gambling where clearly hinged on arrogance on the part of the Frenchman, who knew that his team had need for a striker for a number of seasons, and he still gambled on the fact that Giroud and Walcott would suddenly come good. By their usual standards both players have been very inconsistent. Giroud has not scored a league goal since January. While Theo Walcott has been a shadow of a footballer as he has ebbed and flowed into football abyss. 

That Arsenal are amongst the lowest scoring side in the top six of the English top flight should not come as a surprise, because big chances in prime areas of the field have gone repeatedly unconverted. Arsenal have the best chance creation ratio per game in the league, but conversion has been terrible. The team’s ills have come largely in the final third. The defence has never been steadily strong, but they have held their own in some matches as they have been abysmal in others. The attack would have been able to make up for the shortcomings of the defence, if chances created where converted with goal scoring regularity.

Arsene Wenger’s lack of aggression in the transfer market once again has cost Arsenal a great opportunity to stay and at least go on to win the title. When the season kicked off last summer, few would have envisaged that Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea would struggle in the league. Their struggle should have been an ample opportunity for Arsenal to go on and win the title. Instead if anything, Arsenal have been poor all season. There have not been a sustained period this season where it would be said that Arsenal have consistently produced convincing displays, rather it has been laboured performances.

The continuous collapse of the team is a reflection of the manager. They always buckle under pressure. Even the first decade of Wenger at Highbury and as Arsenal manager was interspersed with late collapses in the league, in the season prior to the invincible season, Arsenal were five points clear with five matches to go, but managed to ruin it with a draw to Bolton and a home defeat to relegation threaten Leeds United in April 2003 to gift the title to Manchester United. Then the players had the mentality to bounce back. That cannot be said of the present crop of players at the club. There are too many players that are not up to the plate to be at the level required.

Arsene Wenger’s arrogance laced gambles backfired spectacularly with the injuries which were exacerbated by the lack of signings to cover the grey areas of the team and squad. With another poor season that promised so much, his excuses may have run out.