Former Nigerian international, Segun Odegbami, has said Super Eagles chief coach, Sunday Oliseh, needs, at least, two more years to build a formidable Eagles team.
Oliseh took the reins of the Eagles from former coach Stephen Keshi seven months ago and has led Nigeria to 14 matches.
The coach lost his first competitive match at the 2016 African Nations Championship in Rwanda when Guinea beat Nigeria 1-0 to end the Eagles’ journey at the tournament. Nigeria left the competition, which was won by DR Congo, with four points from three matches.
But Odegbami, who spoke with journalists in Lagos on Wednesday, said the coach made a mistake in not telling Nigerians the true state of his team from the start, but he is confident that the coach would qualify the country for the 2017 African Cup of Nations.
He said: “Nigeria at present does not have the players to win every competition. The country only has a few that can give us hope. These few can help us qualify for the 2017 Nations Cup but when the race for the 2018 World Cup begins proper, we will find it difficult to cope. If we qualify, then we are lucky.
“Nigeria needs at least two years with Oliseh – if the proper things are done – before we can have the Eagles of our dreams. The right things to be done include looking inwards at the local league; developing it and supporting the players to go to the right environment for training and adequate motivation for the team.”
The Nigerian football legend said: “When Oliseh took up the Eagles job, football in the country was at its lowest ebb. The Eagles were in a bad state when he took over because we didn’t have the quality players he needed to have immediately raised the Eagles that will win everything. So, he needs time to build the team”.
