Solace, the litany of errors you have listed, are the direct reasons why we had the results we have had in the last two games.
Our folly in Nigeria has been consistently separating off-field organization from on-field performance, attributing the latter squarely on the shoulders of the team coach, while paying scant heed to the former. This is a national mental block that we need to heal ourselves of.
We should never have created a situation where a new coach will be required less than three months to two critical World Cup qualifiers, talk less of appointing one less than a month to kick-off. Expecting such a coach to resume and not make a few sub-optimal decisions is foolishness and insanity combined.
I am tired of telling Nigerians that we don't need a genius coach to succeed in National Team football. We need a long term approach to coaching appointments and stability around the team setup. We also need to stop over-glorifying the influence of coaching and realise that long term planning and organization and stability in the team structure over several years is what leads to true success, not coaching genius.
France, England, Germany have done this for years. Senegal is doing same in Africa now. Aliou Cisse was not a coaching genius in 2016 when he took the job. His body language was poor and his first set of results were underwhelming. Same with Southgate at England.
We have had almost 30 coaches in the last 30 years and we still think that the problem is coaching and that the solution is yet another new coach.
Longevity has always been the go-to for successful federations, and none has failed upon employment of such. It beats me that a relatively new caretaker is expected to turn water into wine. Alas, a scapegoat is a scapegoat no matter how healthy-looking. If we bare our minds and be fair, people want the Port-Harcourt man's head on a plattrr for the singular reason of taking the daunting job.
This is so beautifully written! I didn’t want it to end. One can only hope at this point that we do not miss back to back world cups. That would be disastrous.
The team perfectly reflects the state of the country
Solace, the litany of errors you have listed, are the direct reasons why we had the results we have had in the last two games.
Our folly in Nigeria has been consistently separating off-field organization from on-field performance, attributing the latter squarely on the shoulders of the team coach, while paying scant heed to the former. This is a national mental block that we need to heal ourselves of.
We should never have created a situation where a new coach will be required less than three months to two critical World Cup qualifiers, talk less of appointing one less than a month to kick-off. Expecting such a coach to resume and not make a few sub-optimal decisions is foolishness and insanity combined.
I am tired of telling Nigerians that we don't need a genius coach to succeed in National Team football. We need a long term approach to coaching appointments and stability around the team setup. We also need to stop over-glorifying the influence of coaching and realise that long term planning and organization and stability in the team structure over several years is what leads to true success, not coaching genius.
France, England, Germany have done this for years. Senegal is doing same in Africa now. Aliou Cisse was not a coaching genius in 2016 when he took the job. His body language was poor and his first set of results were underwhelming. Same with Southgate at England.
We have had almost 30 coaches in the last 30 years and we still think that the problem is coaching and that the solution is yet another new coach.
We will learn and learn the hard way.
Longevity has always been the go-to for successful federations, and none has failed upon employment of such. It beats me that a relatively new caretaker is expected to turn water into wine. Alas, a scapegoat is a scapegoat no matter how healthy-looking. If we bare our minds and be fair, people want the Port-Harcourt man's head on a plattrr for the singular reason of taking the daunting job.
Finally I can read solace's article with ease😪.
This is so beautifully written! I didn’t want it to end. One can only hope at this point that we do not miss back to back world cups. That would be disastrous.
The team perfectly reflects the state of the country
Your writing is so well-paced and your sentences flow so effortlessly that they betray the effort that must have gone into them.
Equally as important, you write about football in a way that's both nuanced and interesting that even non-football fans can follow and enjoy.
I guess all of this is a roundabout way of saying don't stop writing. Thank you!