“I Rank Among World’s Best Coaches”

-Coach Amodu Shuaibu

Though, this may come to a lot of people as a shocker but to me, i think Amodu deserves more. What other standard is used in grading football coaches, world over?  RECORDS! RECORDS! and RECORDS! ...and this, ---bet with me-- Amodu has in his kitty! Two World Cup tickets and three bronze medals at the Nations Cup among others (how many indigenous African coaches can boast of this?). The NFF gave him a target of semi finals at the just concluded African Nations Cup and this man came back with a bronze medal... what else do you want? What happened to the coaches of the likes of Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire?

The former Nigeria handler says he is a highly misunderstood man who has faced a lot of humiliation at the hands of Nigerian football administrators.

In a no holds barred interview witn SPORTSDAY NEWSPAPER, embattled coach Shuaibu Amodu lashed out at his critics who he says have tried to undermine his contributions to the Nigerian game in the last decade and a half.

The former Orlando Pirates coach, who has now been demoted to the second string side of the Nigerian national teams, has said that the politicians in the country have, in trying to use football as a means of winning the support of football crazy Nigerians, only succeeded in killing the game.

“I am a professional and not a politician. I am clean. I face people and tell them the truth, especially when it comes to my job: football. People say I am arrogant but I wonder what they are talking about. I am very confident in myself because of my knowledge of the game. I know football and, with due respect, I am an institution in this game,” Amodu said.

“It is sad that politicians have taken over the game and everybody wants to tell you what to do about your job.

“Again, people say I snub. It is the pressure of the job. I am getting older and the responsibility is getting higher so you cannot expect me to behave or react the same way as when I was coaching clubs in Nigeria.

“The expectations are high and there are many issues to manage to ensure one gets the desired results. People just misunderstand me and it hurts. I am just a realistic person. I say things as I see them because of my knowledge of the game.”

Amodu said officials of the Nigerian Football Federation met with two foreign coaches in the hotel his team stayed in during the AFCON without respecting his space and that of his players, thereby giving the team a psychological blow.

“I felt bad, especially because it was happening during a major competition, and it is bound to affect one psychologically. The NFF officials even told me about the foreign coach issue during a meeting and I was not bothered.

“Players need concentration and motivation, but these were difficult to achieve in Angola. After the first match, there were reports about NFF‘s plan to sack me. Imagine that!

“People failed to realise that I inherited this team from the lowest ebb and had to do so much work to bring back the confidence. We were getting the results and there were complaints again about many things.

“After winning the ticket to the World Cup people are still complaining, but those things are not important because I am only answerable to the NFF and I have done all I was asked to do according to the content of my contract with the NFF.

“I must admit we could have done better in Angola but the pressure affected everybody. Look at the Ghanaian team. They came to enjoy themselves at the competition because there was no pressure on the team and they did so well and played in the final.”

He tried to defend his use of players like Yakubu Ayegbeni, Seyi Olofinjana and Joseph Yobo, who were not 100 per cent fit at the beginning of the tournament, and said that he picked them on merit to quash insinuations in many quarters that they paid their way to get into the team so as to secure working permits in England.

“Yakubu Aiyegbeni is doing so well in England, scoring over 20 goals almost every season. He had an injury problem and started playing and he was fit enough for the competition. Again there was so much talk about this player, who is the most experienced striker in the team. He has good leadership qualities and he is a delight for every coach.

“Coaches know what they look out for and not just what people want to see. We all knew what people were saying about Garba Lawal but all the coaches were using him at that time.

“The injured players were certified fit for the competition. Yobo and Olofinjana were 75 per cent fit and I was okay with that because I believe they will get better as we go on. We expected a tough beginning but still believed we could play in the finals, which we did.

“There was no understanding in the defence and the players failed to mark tight, especially against Egypt [in their 3-1 loss]. I still believe we did our best to have won a medal. We deserve praise and not criticism,” he said.

To many people who said he has only been lucky to have had a good run during World Cup qualifying, in which his team did not lose any game throughout, Amodu said: “How can one be lucky for 15 to 20 years? I know this job and I enjoy doing it. Nigeria is now 15th in the world and second in Africa, but I took over when the team was not even anywhere near the top at the global level.

“I have no regrets. If I was to do it all over again, I would still have done the same things. I am trying to rest after all the tension of Angola, and let me also state that the foreign coach thing is no big deal because I signed a contract to work with a foreign coach anytime the NFF is ready,” Amodu concluded.