Super Eagles Interim coach, Shaibu Amodu, has resolved to work with most of the players that played under Stephen Keshi in prosecuting the remaining two Nations Cup qualifiers. However, he indicated his intention to draft one or two new players into the team.
Amodu gave the signs when he led his technical crew to meet with the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on the tasks at hand.
He said: “We have met with the NFF technical department and they made our job easy by providing a list of 60 players to select from.
“I will sit with my technical crew and see those who are in good form for invitation. There is no way we can overhaul the Super Eagles within one month.
“Keshi’s team is made up of some of the best players the country can boast off; so we’ll give them a chance to prove themselves. But that does not mean that one or two new players might not be given a chance to be in the team if they live up to the standard expected of them.
“At the end of the day, what is important to me, my crew and all Nigerians is to see how we can salvage the situation and get the required results that will see us qualify for the Nations Cup.
“We have been given an assignment that is tough and very challenging, but not one that is impossible to accomplish. We will give it our very best and see how things can be turned around.”
Amodu compared Nigeria’s present situation to what happened in the build up to the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan.
“I think this situation is very similar to what we had in the qualifiers to the 2002 World Cup. We worked hard, did our bit and were fortunate to have results elsewhere also going our way.
“There are some things that, as humans, we cannot control, just as there is a lot more we can influence.
“I can assure everybody that we will give this assignment all we have and then hope that all other things fall in place for us.
“Let us all be modest in our expectations, so that we do not put ourselves under undue pressure.
“Let everybody involved in the game in Nigeria pull together in the right direction and then we see what we can achieve with the next two games as mandated by the NFF,” he said.
Our source close to the former Orlando Pirates FC of South Africa coach revealed that if given the free hand to handle the team, players such as Villarreal FC of Spain striker, Ike Uche, Chinedu Ogbuke, Bright Dike, Kelechi Iheanacho, Haruna Lukman and goalkeeper Dele Alampasu among others might be invited to the Super Eagles.
Our source said: “He (Amodu) is really impressed with the current form of Ike Uche in the La Liga, especially after scoring 100 goals in the league. He has promised to give him a call, commend him for his performance and, if remains in such good form, invite him.
“Many promising and talented Nigerian players were overlooked by Keshi when he was in charge to the team at the detriment of the country.”