•Says, “My players won’t play on artificial turf again”
New Super Eagles Manager, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi has sensationally revealed that the Super Eagles would return to the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos more than seven years after the team abandoned the Sports City in protest against alleged unfriendly fans and critical sporting press.
Eagles last played inside the Lagos Stadium in 2004
during the LG Cup invitational tournament that was won by the Lions of
Senegal.
But the former Super Eagles’ captain who led the Nigerian team to beat the Chipolopolo of Zambia 2-0 in an international friendly match on Tuesday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna says he wants to return to the Sports City in Lagos where he began his illustrious playing career stressing that he is poised to build a new Super Eagles team that Nigerians would be proud of.
In this exclusive interview with Saturday Sunsports in Kaduna, Keshi popularly known as the Big Boss declared that what he has at the moment is not a team but a group of players given to him by the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation. He revealed his road map towards rebuilding the Super Eagles with a view to reclaiming Nigeria’s lost glory in the round leather game. The juicy interview is served hot and fresh for your weekend delight. Enjoy it!
My dream Super Eagles
My dream Super Eagles is the one that would make Nigerians smile. The Super Eagles that Nigerians would be proud of. But what I have at the moment is not a team but a group of players that were given to me by the Technical Committee. But after about six matches you could ask me the same question again.
Home-based players as base
Nothing good comes easy. For me, I believe in one philosophy and that is the fact that you must first work before you smile. Yes, we do have abundance of players in Nigeria but we must create a situation whereby we can nurture these talents into stardom. And whereby we cannot do that then it’s going to be difficult. I like to work with players in the domestic league. With that I can set up a base because I have more time to work with them unlike the foreign-based players that I could hardly have up to five or six training sessions with at a time. You can image that we barely had two training sessions in between these two matches against Botswana and Zambia. By the time I start working with the home-based players, I hope to get what I want for the team and Nigerians.
Monitoring players in the domestic league
You might be right to say that I’ve not been around for a while, but I have assistants that have been working with clubs in the domestic league. They know the players. All I require from them is to pick about 25 players for me and I do the rest of the job. I also have coaches like Kadiri Ikhana to help me in selecting players from the domestic league. So I do not expect much problem with the selection of 25 quality players from the domestic league. Once I have the players, I do the job.
Preparation for Rwanda game
I intend to go Morocco to be with Austin Eguavoen and the Dream Team. When I’m gone I do not expect any problem because my assistants would be busy with home-based players. When I return we continue from where they stop at least for about two or three weeks before we go for Christmas holiday. And if we cannot brush them up within those three weeks, then we know how many players we would need to bring from Europe. I do not intend to bring in 20 players from Europe because that would be ridiculous. We would have four teams playing in the continent in either the CAF Champions League or Confederation Cup. We should have some players from those teams. So those are part of the programmes that we have.
Eagles’ return to Lagos
I’m not against playing in Abuja. Abuja is part of Nigeria. But I grew up playing in National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. My dream is to go back to that stadium and play my matches there. Once in a while I could go out of Lagos to other parts of the country like Kaduna, Kano or Calabar. But my main stadium is going to be Lagos. But that stadium has got to be ready because I cannot have my payers play on artificial turf anymore. I lost about three players to the artificial turf at the stadium in Benin. Although the standard of the turf in Benin is okay, yet it is not the same as playing on natural grass. If the National Stadium in Lagos could be done fast and put back in good condition, all I want is to return to Lagos and play because that’s where I belong.
Crowd/spectators as inspiration
When I was in Togo, you would mistake my training sessions for real match situations because of the large crowd that came to watch the training. It was the same situation when I was in Mali. I remember when I was still playing in the Nigerian team. When we went to train in the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, everywhere used to be jam-packed with spectators. It’s some kind of motivation for the players because it helps them get ready for the match.
I want to see that happen again that’s why I want to go back there. That would also put the players on the edge because they know that they have to play to meet the expectations of the fans. I don’t see why the Super Eagles no more play in Lagos and prefer to play in Abuja. But I would like to go back to Lagos.
It is for the coach to decide where the team plays and that’s it. The players have no reason to refuse to play where the coach wants the team to play. Players should look up to their coach for leadership and direction.
By sunnewsonline.com
New Super Eagles Manager, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi has sensationally revealed that the Super Eagles would return to the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos more than seven years after the team abandoned the Sports City in protest against alleged unfriendly fans and critical sporting press.
|
| Keshi |
But the former Super Eagles’ captain who led the Nigerian team to beat the Chipolopolo of Zambia 2-0 in an international friendly match on Tuesday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna says he wants to return to the Sports City in Lagos where he began his illustrious playing career stressing that he is poised to build a new Super Eagles team that Nigerians would be proud of.
In this exclusive interview with Saturday Sunsports in Kaduna, Keshi popularly known as the Big Boss declared that what he has at the moment is not a team but a group of players given to him by the technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation. He revealed his road map towards rebuilding the Super Eagles with a view to reclaiming Nigeria’s lost glory in the round leather game. The juicy interview is served hot and fresh for your weekend delight. Enjoy it!
My dream Super Eagles
My dream Super Eagles is the one that would make Nigerians smile. The Super Eagles that Nigerians would be proud of. But what I have at the moment is not a team but a group of players that were given to me by the Technical Committee. But after about six matches you could ask me the same question again.
Home-based players as base
Nothing good comes easy. For me, I believe in one philosophy and that is the fact that you must first work before you smile. Yes, we do have abundance of players in Nigeria but we must create a situation whereby we can nurture these talents into stardom. And whereby we cannot do that then it’s going to be difficult. I like to work with players in the domestic league. With that I can set up a base because I have more time to work with them unlike the foreign-based players that I could hardly have up to five or six training sessions with at a time. You can image that we barely had two training sessions in between these two matches against Botswana and Zambia. By the time I start working with the home-based players, I hope to get what I want for the team and Nigerians.
Monitoring players in the domestic league
You might be right to say that I’ve not been around for a while, but I have assistants that have been working with clubs in the domestic league. They know the players. All I require from them is to pick about 25 players for me and I do the rest of the job. I also have coaches like Kadiri Ikhana to help me in selecting players from the domestic league. So I do not expect much problem with the selection of 25 quality players from the domestic league. Once I have the players, I do the job.
Preparation for Rwanda game
I intend to go Morocco to be with Austin Eguavoen and the Dream Team. When I’m gone I do not expect any problem because my assistants would be busy with home-based players. When I return we continue from where they stop at least for about two or three weeks before we go for Christmas holiday. And if we cannot brush them up within those three weeks, then we know how many players we would need to bring from Europe. I do not intend to bring in 20 players from Europe because that would be ridiculous. We would have four teams playing in the continent in either the CAF Champions League or Confederation Cup. We should have some players from those teams. So those are part of the programmes that we have.
Eagles’ return to Lagos
I’m not against playing in Abuja. Abuja is part of Nigeria. But I grew up playing in National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. My dream is to go back to that stadium and play my matches there. Once in a while I could go out of Lagos to other parts of the country like Kaduna, Kano or Calabar. But my main stadium is going to be Lagos. But that stadium has got to be ready because I cannot have my payers play on artificial turf anymore. I lost about three players to the artificial turf at the stadium in Benin. Although the standard of the turf in Benin is okay, yet it is not the same as playing on natural grass. If the National Stadium in Lagos could be done fast and put back in good condition, all I want is to return to Lagos and play because that’s where I belong.
Crowd/spectators as inspiration
When I was in Togo, you would mistake my training sessions for real match situations because of the large crowd that came to watch the training. It was the same situation when I was in Mali. I remember when I was still playing in the Nigerian team. When we went to train in the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, everywhere used to be jam-packed with spectators. It’s some kind of motivation for the players because it helps them get ready for the match.
I want to see that happen again that’s why I want to go back there. That would also put the players on the edge because they know that they have to play to meet the expectations of the fans. I don’t see why the Super Eagles no more play in Lagos and prefer to play in Abuja. But I would like to go back to Lagos.
It is for the coach to decide where the team plays and that’s it. The players have no reason to refuse to play where the coach wants the team to play. Players should look up to their coach for leadership and direction.
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