Letter to Keshi: Sir, you sabotaged yourself!

Dear Stephen Okechukwu Keshi,

I am writing this letter with a heavy heart as a fan of the Super Eagles and a firm believer in your abilities as a player and a coach.

However, after hearing the news report on Monday of your assertion that certain individuals and forces are sabotaging your team, I beg to disagree. In fact, I made bold to say that you, Mr Keshi, are your own worst enemy and you are the one that has sabotaged your good works and legacy in the team.

Let me remind you of a saying: ‘You do not change a winning team or a winning formula’. But at the same time there’s another saying: ‘One cannot continue to do the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result’.

So what am I driving at? Let’s examine the facts: When you took up this job after the disastrous qualification campaign by the Samson Siasia led team for the 2012 African Nations Cup, you said the spine of the team will be built from the home-based players. You set up a camp and brought the players together.

Your home-based programme unearthed the likes of Sunday Mba, Godfrey Oboabona, Ejike Uzoenyi, Azubuike Egwuekwe, Reuben Gabriel, among others, brought intense competition for places and gave hope to the players from the Nigerian professional league.

That, home-based Eagles, mixed with a few professionals, prosecuted the Afcon 2013 qualifiers with little problems, beat Rwanda 2-0 and disposed of Liberia 8-3 on aggregate to qualify for the Nations Cup in South Africa. Then, you had a vision and a goal, so why did you jettison that and allow yourself to be misled by the pressures and greed of the same ‘saboteurs’ that you now accuse?

A coach lives and dies by his decision, so why did you not stick with your convictions? Why do you think the established Super Eagles players like Mikel, Moses, Emenike, Yobo gave their all at the Nations Cup in South Africa?

I will tell you. It’s because they saw a team forming and realised they are no longer guaranteed starting berths in the team. But, after the African nations cup triumph in South Africa, you abandoned the project, and went back to the tried, tested and failed template of the Siasia era – inviting junk bench warmers from foreign leagues.

The established players, seeing as the junks players are no threats, became complacent. You made them untouchables and now complain of sabotage? What happened to the battling midfielder we have at the CHAN in South Africa in January this year?

Seeing as the team’s midfield had become a joke since the Confederations cup, did you sit with the coaching staff to evaluate what went well during that competition and what went wrong? I am not convinced that the chomping and changing of players in that midfield was based on any clear strategy or tactics because as soon as a player start to gel in that midfield, he’s dumped and another one is invited.

What happened to Ogude, Nwankwo and Ogu? These three players were very good complement to the Mikel-Onazi pivot, but you never played to their strengths. In attacking midfield, what’s your reason for dropping Mba when it’s clear that only him, Moses and later Babatunde, are the only players that can actually run with the ball at their feet and bring other players into play? Sone Aluko, another player that can do this, is consistently on your bench whilst you fill the midfield with holding mid-fielders. Yet, you wonder why the team is not scoring goals. Why not pair Musa and Emenike together in attack to take advantage of Musa’s speed like he does for CSKA?

Back to my assertion that you sabotaged yourself. You gambled and put all your eggs in one basket, and by providence or bad luck, you are now paying the price. At the World Cup, you gambled on Moses, Babatunde and Osaze to provide creativity in the middle and dropped Mba.

You forgot that injuries do happen. You failed to make a plan B or Plan C. So when the injuries eventually came – with Moses at 60% fitness and all sorts, Osaze not able to cope in the middle – poor Babatunde was left to carry the team forward on his own. Against France, after injury took out Babatunde, and Onazi, who had been keeping sanity in the middle, heads dropped and the team lost even before Enyeama’s mistake let Pogba in.

Was there any post-mortem done? Did you learn from the World Cup debacle? No. If you did, we would not be here today – one loss or a draw away from kissing Afcon 2015 goodbye.

Back to the saying earlier: You cannot continue to play the same unmotivated, tired and complacent line-up every game and expect a miraculous result.

Martin Odegaard made his Norway debut last night age 15 years, 300 days. Why haven’t you incorporate the stars of the 2013 U-17 team in the Super Eagles?

What happened to our youngsters? Why do we not have Macauley Chrisantus, Mike Awoniyi, Musa Mohammed and Kelechi Iheanacho in our team now? Are you waiting till they are in their 30s and washed out before they get into the national team? Each of these boys have specific strengths that can patch up the glaring problems in the present Super Eagles – from the slow and sluggish right full back position manned by Efe Ambrose to the ineffective central strikers we are parading.

I’m sure that the players, playing week in, week out in the NPFL, Africa Champions League are sharper, fitter and better that all the bench warming superstars you have been inviting from abroad. With the exception of specific players, whose experience are needed to guide and lead the team, most of the invitees had no business in the Super Eagles.

Football has moved on in Africa, There are  no more pushovers and some of these small nations have very good coaches and exceptional players who are well drilled in the tactical plan and game objectives of their teams. It’s not about the individual players anymore, but the mental preparedness of the team. You cannot just turn up now and expect to win.

I wish you well our coach, and I join other Nigerians to hope for the best on Wednesday.

Yours Sincerely,

Yomi Omogbeja