Open Letter To Super Eagles Coach, Eric Chelle – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

Dear Coach, congratula­tions on your appoint­ment as the new coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

To say your appointment shocked a lot of Nigerians is stat­ing the obvious but knowing Ni­gerians for who we are, we have taken you as one of us. You are welcome and in a very safe envi­ronment. I dare say you cannot find more hospitable, charming and friendly people anywhere in the world than in Nigeria.

This boisterous characteristic of the average Nigerian has con­tinued to attract friendly and not too friendly hosts wherever we find ourselves.

However, generally speaking, I make bold to say you cannot find a better host than Nigerians. Feel at home, enjoy our cuisines.

However, the fact remains that your choice as the Super Eagles coach still remains a mystery. Your credentials cannot be said to be so impressive enough to explain why our football associ­ation chose you over and above our local coaches.

In terms of your coaching and playing experiences, certainly there must be something about you which the minders of our football house know which we do not know.

Make no mistake about this, this scepticism of your choice over our local coaches is not tar­geted at you because you are not a Nigerian, but because the job of the coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, ranks second only to that of the President of Nigeria, in terms of public scrutiny and attraction. Football is almost a religion and the only biggest single unifying factor that sees us dumping our prejudices when­ever the Eagles play.

Given the profile of Nigeria in world football and on the con­tinent especially, your choice as our new coach would send a signal to all other African coun­tries to begin to consider looking within the continent for some of these jobs. And so your success should send the necessary signal to this effect. It should also begin to speak to the urgency for Afri­can renaissance and integration.

Therefore, be prepared for a bumpy ride as that job is not for the faint-hearted. It’s a job for which the expectations of the people are perpetually sky-bound. The Super Eagles are ex­pected to win all the time, but if you must lose any game the aver­age football fan must be satisfied that your players put up a com­mendable showing, their efforts must be seen to be good enough to give you another chance.

Talking about playing well enough, the current bunch of players of the team rank very high in terms of individual rat­ings and talents all holding their own in world football, but they have consistently fallen very short in delivery and winning games for Nigeria.

It’s difficult to think of any set of Super Eagles players that command regular first team players in their leagues like the current team. Yet, each time this team plays, they play like a bunch of below average players. Even when they manage to win, they struggle to do that.

So, as the new coach, your job is well cut out for you and you must come to terms with the re­ality that losing games is hardly an option.

Again, your choice as a non Ni­gerian is very welcome to some people who believe that local coaches choose their team based on sentiment and stick to players who may not be performing opti­mally but remain in the team, at the expense of others who may be doing well with their clubs but do not get invited.

So, you must give equal oppor­tunities to your players and allow merit based on current forms to be the overriding consideration for getting called to the national team.

You are advised to take abso­lute control of who gets invited and who makes your team. This is important as some persons in the football association and in positions of influence still see the national teams as a place for ethnic and religious balancing.

In the same vein, every Nigeri­an is a quasi coach and believes that they know as much as the coach, so their input must be reckoned with.

On the part of the players, for you to succeed, you must completely get all the players in check. A lot of them, especially the so-called senior players, do not see the need to report early in camp because they believe they are untouchable, so they stroll in a day or two after others have assembled.

This does not give room for proper team cohesion and un­derstanding. This perhaps, may be one of the reasons this present bunch of Eagles players do win matches and also play like strange bedfellows. They play like there is no understanding amongst them. Even when they win, their over­all performance hardly gives one cause to celebrate.

Although the terms of your contract are not well known to me, I must say that, as I said at the beginning of this piece, you must make yourself comfortable in Nigeria to make the desired impact on the team. Most of the best coaches who have made the most impact on our football, e.g Coaches Otto Gloria, and Clemens Westerhof lived here and even the latter married a Nigerian.

However, of late, and for more reasons best known to our foot­ball managers, we have been getting coaches who spend more time in their home countries and on the plane travelling all over the world, looking for heaven knows what, in the name being expatriate coaches.

Finally, and as a piece of ad­vice. Beware of those profession­al politicians whose only interest in football is what they can get. Be a man of your own and insist on what you want. So should you succeed, you take the credit and should you fail you know that you made the call and should take full responsibility for your actions.

This is necessary because the same people who would be sing­ing your praises when your team is doing well would be the same asking for your head on a platter should you fail.

Welcome and this is wishing you a successful tenure. Enjoy Nigeria and Nigerians.