Is Amodu The Right Man?

It’s been at least six weeks since the Nigeria Football Association named Shaibu Amodu Super Eagles coach and I’ve been pondering that decision ever since. At first look, it’s another poor decision from an organization that’s not exactly known for making many smart ones. With good reasons too; first, the NFA dragged its feet through out March – ostensibly to let Berti Vogts’ contract to lapse, and then named James Peters interim coach. Worse still, after interviewing several candidates for the job, they allowed Stephen Keshi – the best of the lot - to leave in frustration to sign up with Mali. With Samson Siasia tied up with the Olympic squad, Amodu appears to be the last recourse open to the NFA.

But the benefit of hindsight has left me wondering why the notion of Amodu’s return appears to have rubbed so many Eagles’ fans the wrong way. Surely, if local coaches are again flavor of the month in Nigerian soccer (after the Berti Vogts’ disaster, they seem to be) it’s hard to look too far beyond the experience and accomplishments of Amodu. Now, whether that is a testament to Amodu’s creds or merely a reflection of the poor state of local coaches is for you to decide, but Amodu’s records with the likes of BCC Lions, El Kanemi and Orlando Pirates speak for themselves – even if more recent spells at Sharks and Nassarawa have been less than stellar. As for international experience, once you look beyond Adegboye Onigbinde and perhaps Siasia, - and the recently departed Austin Eguavoen and his predecessor Christian Chukwu - it’s nigh on impossible to name any other credible options.

So we’re back to Amodu and, don’t get me wrong, I am not entirely thrilled by this development – I was hoping for Keshi. I certainly remember Amodu’s last term at the helm, when an uninspiring, out-of-sorts team crashed out to Senegal at the semi final of Mali 2002. Amodu’s greatest failing was an inability to get a handle on his big name players, leading to anarchy in camp and an ultimately disastrous clash between the players – led by Sunday Oliseh – and the powers that be at the NFA. As coach, Amodu has to carry the can for that debacle, and he certainly paid the price when he lost his job after the finals and missed out on leading the Eagles to the World Cup.

Yet, when it comes to Amodu’s coaching abilities, I am not sure we have given the coach a fair shake. The truth is, for all the Super Eagles experience Amodu boasts, we’ve never really given him a chance to actually coach the team. Seriously. Chukwu had three years and Eguavoen two years, Amodu’s been given a few months here and there, totaling no more than two years spread over an eight-year period. Certainly not the kind of continuity required to leave a mark on a team.

Amodu first took the helm in 1994, with the nation basking in the euphoria of Nigeria’s first World Cup appearance and a triumphant Nations Cup campaign in Tunisia. Understandably, expectations were sky high, and that would always prove an unwieldy albatross, yet Amodu was blessed with a team and players of genuine quality, with the likes of Okocha, Oliseh, Amuneke, George and Amokachi just reaching the heights of their powers and a younger corps – Kanu, Babayaro, West – coming through the ranks. But Amodu never quite got a chance to prove his worth. He was gone within a year, with only a handful of inconsequential matches – in the Confederation Cup and a tour of the US – under his belt. It’s not that the results or performances were that bad, especially since the first choice players hardly featured, but there was that constant clamor for a foreign hand (guess, they were flavor of the month then) and the wave of unrealistic expectations was way too high. Case in point: many Nigeria fans considered a 1-0 loss to England at Wembley unacceptable, even if the Eagles had played some breath-taking football. I wonder what they make of our recent struggles against the likes of Mali now.

His next attempt is hardly worth mentioning, lasting just the first two matches of the 1998 World Cup qualifiers. He was gone after a 1-1 draw in Kenya and replaced by Frenchman Phillipe Troussier. Had he stayed, Amodu would have benefited from working with perhaps the best collection of talent the country has ever had. Fresh from Olympic glory in Atlanta and blessed with a nucleus of players featuring at the highest club level in Europe. But that never happened. Another opportunity lost.

Then came Mali 2002 – the one championship Amodu actually led the Eagles to. A third-place finish –and the team’s uninspiring performances - may have proved ultimately disappointing, yet the fact that the team arrived for those finals as one of the favorites – and with a World Cup ticket in hand – was down to the near-miraculous turn-around job that Amodu and his crew had accomplished after taking over the mess that Jo Bonfrere had bequeathed on them six months earlier.

Need reminding? Bonfrere led the Eagles to losses in Liberia and Sierra Leone (!), leaving the World Cup campaign teetering on the edge of disaster before the FA gave him the boot.

Amodu led the team to three straight wins – including an impressive 4-0 win in Sudan – and took advantage of Liberia’s home loss to Ghana to seal World Cup qualification. Bonfrere’s team managed to garner just 7 points from five matches; Amodu’s – featuring the same players - got the maximum 12 points from 3 matches. In total, between May 2001 and February 2002, the only time he was given a decent run of matches, Amodu’s Eagles played 10 matches, won 7, drew 2 and lost 1- and only one of those games was a friendly. Good numbers by any standard.

The mess in Mali took much away from those early successes, especially since that one defeat was to Senegal in the semi-final, but in retrospect, I think Amodu should have been given a chance to right the ship and lead the team to Japan/Korea 2002. I doubt the outcome could have been any worse than the first round elimination we suffered in the orient.

Ironically, Amodu’s longest spell in charge coincided with the decline of the all-conquering team of the 1990s. In truth, the 2002 squad was at best, a team in transition. In that light, finishing 3rd at the Nations Cup can hardly be labeled a disaster. Certainly not when compared to the class of 2008.

The real test of Amodu’s mettle would have been to transition that aging team to a new, potent force. I would like to think that process was already under way – the likes of Yobo, Udeze, Aghahowa, Agali and Ayegbeni were already important squad players. Yet, Amodu’s lack of control over the squad and the lack of young options in midfield – a condition that continues to dog the Super Eagles – suggest otherwise. Again, we lost the opportunity to see if he is up to the task.

Sadly, Amodu faces an even tougher battle this time. Nigeria no longer has the quality or the depth of talent that comprised the Super Eagles between 1994 and 2002, and Ghana 2008 further underlined the lack of midfield talent. Perversely, the Eagles’ recent failings may also prove a positive for Amodu; expectations are probably more reasonable now that the team’s limitations have been exposed.

Of course, there are no guarantees that he would be allowed any more time than he had in the past. There’s already talk that he is only holding the forte until Siasia makes a triumphant return from Beijing.

I don’t know if Amodu is the right man to re-build Super Eagles. But I would sure like to find out and I hope he gets enough time to make his case – for once.