Super Eagles new coach, Sunday Oliseh, on Wednesday said he would put in his best to take Nigerian football to greater heights but warned that he should not be seen as the awaited messiah.
Speaking after signing a three-year contract with the Nigeria Football Federation in Abuja, Oliseh said he had already commenced work by compiling a list of Nigerian players who have the potential to make his new team. He assured Nigerians that he would be fully committed to his job.
The new coach warned that he would not tolerate any form of indiscipline and late arrival of players in his camp.
Oliseh, who insisted that only players in the first division of recognised leagues abroad and in Nigeria would make his new-look Eagles, also explained the factors that influenced his choice of assistants.
The ex-international assured fans that he would ensure a cordial relationship with the NFF technical department adding that he had grown up into a mature man who was not coming into Nigerian football to fight but to serve his nation.
He said, “Personally, it is a great honour to be a coach of this great nation. My acceptance by the NFF and Nigerians touches the heart and we are more than motivated to give our best for Nigeria. First of all, I am not coming as a messiah, or the man who knows it all. I cannot singularly turn Nigeria into Germany. But I am coming as a man who has come to serve his country and I will give a 150 per cent to it.
“I think I owe it to you to explain why my assistants were carefully chosen by me. When we have to bring in an expatriate to serve in Nigerian football, I told the NFF president that I will not be a party to the bringing in of an expatriate who is going to come with an attitude of better than thou here. We need an expatriate who will be ready to work and who is hungry for victory.
“We need one who knows Africa and does not need time to acclimatise. That was how we arrived at Jean Francoise Luiscuito. For Salisu, we needed him very seriously because he knows the in and out of the league. Alloy Agu, we need him because when you are talking of calmness and giving tactical advice to the coaches and goalkeepers, he fits in very well.
“That is why we are what we are as a team. It is obvious that the days are gone when we have individual players that can win matches for us out of their own individual efforts. That was what stood my own generation of Nigerian footballers out. The way it goes is that if you don’t have great individual players, you need a great coaching crew to compensate for what you don’t have. But we have the potential to be the best in the world. That is what the coaching crew honestly believe in. They were meticulously chosen for this job.
“We have set up certain criteria for those who will play in our new Super Eagles from now on. One of them is that if you are not playing in the first division of the Nigerian league or any credible league in the world, you are not going to get a place in team. The only exception to that criterion is if you are coming from the age categories of Nigerian football where you have excelled.
“We need players who are motivated. No player is doing Nigeria a favour by playing in the national team, just like I am not doing Nigeria a favour by coaching the Eagles. It is an honour to play for or coach Nigeria. Also, we had a long constructive discussion with the NFF technical committee yesterday (Tuesday). They have made it clear to me that they are willing to stand and support us and I made it clear also to them that I am willing to be responsible for my players, my coaching staff. We have mapped out everybody’s duties and we all agreed on that. The aim is to work in the interest of Nigeria because if we fail, they have also failed because we need them to provide us with information, scouting and otherwise of our opponents.”
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