Chief Patron of Lagos State Football Referees Council (LFRC), Michael Ajayi, has described Stephen Keshi as an average coach who cannot take the Super Eagles far.
Stephen Keshi
Charting the way forward for the team after the FIFA World Cup held in Brazil, Ajayi called on the authorities to relieve Keshi of his appointment immediately.
He said: “Keshi so far has demonstrated that he is an average coach. Nigeria’s FIFA ranking dropped to the lowest ebb under his leadership and his average performance cannot take Nigeria’s Super Eagles anywhere.
“Hence, he should be thanked for his average efforts and relieved of his appointment immediately. The team needs an experienced Grade ‘A’ coach.”
But in the interim, Ajayi, urged the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), through the National Sports Commission (NSC), to call upon Samson Siasia to take charge while efforts are put in place to recruit a coach of international repute who will reside in the country and not abroad.
“Second, the technical committee of the NFF should be disbanded with a view to reconstituting a new committee with experienced hands.
“Third, the present team should be disbanded to pave way for the development of a new blueprint for the reconstitution of a new Super Eagles that will prosecute the 2015 African Nations Cup. This should be done with alacrity,” he said.
The retired Grade 1 football referee also advised the authorities on issues of allowances before, during and after major competitions.
He said: “To forestall the kind of embarrassment that Nigeria faced at Brazil 2014, appearance fees and players’ bonuses should be resolved before the commencement of any tournament.
Ajayi had, immediately after the ouster, blamed Keshi for the team’s performance at the Mundial, stressing that his 23-man team was largely dominated by players who are currently not on the ‘first 11’ in their respective clubs.
“Apart from that, the team also lacked a good bench that is capable of turning the tide as well as adding an excellent value to the team.
“This observation came to the fore when Ogenyi Onazi was stretchered out of the field of play after a violent tackle by Blaise Mutuidi, and Keshi’s replacement had no impact on the team.
“The exit of Onazi exposed the deficiencies of Mikel Obi in the midfield, and it is only Keshi that can explain why he played Mikel in all the matches when all Nigerians could see that he could not take a single shot at goal in four matches.
“His passes were made straight to his opponents and would rather shield the ball, when he should be passing the ball to his team mates who were already standing in advantageous positions.
“In fact, it was obvious that the Super Eagles under Keshi lacked a solid midfield and an influential play-maker,” he said.
He added that the Super Eagles under Keshi lacked skilled players in some key areas of the game. “A good team is expected to have good spot kick takers, set pieces takers, specialists in long and short distance free kicks as well as corner kicks.
“We all watched with pains as Ahmed Musa, though an excellent player, wasted five corner kicks in a row without a word from Keshi, whereas Argentina took two set pieces to inflict defeat on the Super Eagles,” he said.
Nigeria played a goalless draw with Iran in the first Group F match and managed to beat Bosnia 1-0 before losing 3-2 to Argentina in the group’s last match, but managed to qualify for the Round of 16 against France.
And despite several begging scoring chances that came the way of the players, Nigeria lost to France 2-0 to crash out of the Mundial.