Says Decision On Domestic Players Questiones His Abilities
Former international, Felix Owolabi, has expressed resentment over the feat of Super Eagles, especially against Cape Verde and in the other fixtures of the African World Cup qualifying matches en route to Qatar 2022. He described Coach Gernot Rohr five-year reign as a period that domestic league players became stagnated.
Nigeria last Tuesday qualified for the World Cup play off under the French-German coach after the succeeded in booking a place for the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroun. Meanwhile, some dissatisfied fans at game against Cape Verde in the Teslim Balogun Stadium chorused the sack of Rohr, who they concluded can never take Eagles to the next Mundial.
Speaking to The Guardian during the week, Owolabi said he does not see Rohr as a coach, because he cannot point at any pattern of football that the Eagles have adopted since he was made the team’s handler, aside the team lacking character, discipline and others.
“As far as I am concerned, the man has simply wasted more than five years of our football development. The fund we wasted in engaging him would have been used to refurbish the Liberty and National stadiums.
“Under him, the Eagles lack character, discipline and formation of any kind. Yes, I agree that we have individual players, but collectively, we do not have a team. To me, the man is not a coach because five years is more than enough to produce a world-class team,” he said, adding that his greatest undoing was abandoning the domestic league.
“If Rohr is confident of himself as a good coach, he would have looked at our local league for talents, whom he thinks he can groom for a period that he has spent with us. By now, at least he would have produced 10 players. But he jettisoned our domestic league players and looked for them in Europe, whereas the destiny of every country’s football lies in its local league.
“Rohr’s greatest mistake was when he made a pronouncement that he has nothing to do with the local league because the league was nothing to write home about. And that was where he shot himself in the foot,” he said.
Owolabi who has a doctorate degree in Physical Education added: “The excuse given by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that it does not have the money to give him if sacked is a flimsy one. To me, the NFF is not ready to sack Rohr and it simply playing on Nigerians’ intelligence. I think we have the power to sack a coach at any time and engage another one any time, any day.
“Look at the case of the Egyptian coach that was sacked and another one employed almost immediately during the World Cup qualifiers. Another case is that of Chelsea’s Frank Lampard, who was relieved of his duty and replaced by Thomas Tuchel who went to win the Champions League with the same players that struggled under Lampard. Rohr has nothing to offer us, he should just go for another person to take over,” he stated.
As far as I am concerned the man has simply wasted more than five years of our football development and also our resources, which ordinarily would have been used to refurbish the Liberty and the National stadiums.