A former junior international, Chuks Akuneto, is thrilled that the Nigeria Football Federation is in talks with Sunday Oliseh for the Super Eagles coaching job. He is shocked about the outcry from certain football stakeholders over the suitability or otherwise of the former Nigeria international for the national team coaching job; a person he believes will commence the much-needed revolution Nigerian football requires. The move by the NFF has been met by disapproval from certain individuals owing to Oliseh’s lack of coaching experience.
Oliseh’s last coaching job was at Belgian lower league side R.C.S. Verviétois in the 2008/2009 season. One of the biggest critics of the former Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, and Ajax midfielder is a former Super Eagles coach, Clemens Westerhof, who back in 1993 handed Oliseh the first of his 54 caps for Nigeria.
Westerhof, according to media reports, said the 40-year-old has not got the required experience to handle such a difficult side with lots of egotistical players and faulted the NFF’s decision in handing the top coaching job to someone who would not be respected by the national team players. Akuneto, who is a coach at English sixth-tier club, FC United of Manchester, as well as an English FA Club Mentor, however feels everyone citing Oliseh’s lack of experience as reason for him not to be engaged by the NFF have all got it wrong. “I really don’t know what all the fuss is about,” Akuneto told New Telegraph.
“Here is a gentleman who served this country with all his strength. A gentleman who is very articulate and has well thought out views about the way the game should be coached. “The NFF obviously know what they want because Oliseh favours long term player development over the usual fire brigade approach.
“He is very qualified for the job, or do all these people think it is easy to get an UEFA Pro Licence? It is not,” said Akuneto, who holds an UEFA A Licence. “He played under some of the best coaches to have ever coached the game. Current Denmark coach, Morten Olsen, was his coach at Ajax and he (Ol-sen) has been coaching Denmark since 2000. Former Real Madrid, Chelsea and AC Milan coach, Carlo Ancelotti coached him at Juventus, and Matthias Sammer was his boss at Borussia Dortmund.
These are all top managers and no one can tell me Oliseh didn’t pick up a lot from playing under these legends of the game. The former Stationery Stores and Shooting Stars defender also cited the case of former Germany and current United States coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, who never handled any club before his appointment as Germany coach in 2004.
“Klinsmann’s first coaching job was with the German national team and he started a revolution that saw Germany getting to the seminfinals of the World Cup in 2006,” he continued. “And today we all know what that revolution led to as Germany are world champions. “So as far as I am concerned, our own revolution has just begun.”
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