Onigbinde writes Keshi, asks him to quit Eagles

A former coach of Nigeria, Adegboye
Onigbinde, has disclosed that he has personally
written to out-of-contract Super Eagles coach,
Stephen Keshi, to quietly seek a job elsewhere.
Onigbinde spoke with a Nigerian online news
portal SuperSport.com .
Of late the calls have been deafening mostly
from former Nigerian managers for the erstwhile
Mali and Togo coach to leave the Eagles job
after he failed to qualify the country for the
2015 Africa Cup of Nations in a dismal fashion.
The latest calls for Keshi to quite have come
from Christian Chukwu, Shaibu Amodu, and
Kashimawo Laloko, among others.
Onigbinde said he would not like to be seen
repeating himself on Keshi and Eagles’ job as he
has specifically asked him then to politely thank
the president for considering him worthy for recall
and bow out honourably.
Onigbinde said, “On the very day the
Presidency asked him to return to his job I
personally sent him a text message to politely
thank Mr President for the offer and bow out
honourably and quietly, too.
“Keshi respectfully replied the text message
thanking me and that was it as he went ahead
with the two remaining 2015 AFCON qualifying
matches against Congo and South Africa, I’m
sure the rest is history.
“I volunteered the advice to Keshi because I
understand that he won’t work with the
Presidency but a different set of people as well
as an entirely different environment.
“Now that others have picked up the calls I have
the privilege to have said over two months ago
I won’t like to engage in an exercise that will
appear repetitious so that I won’t be accused of
having interest in the whole matter.
“I’m not used to pressurising people to act in
certain way, I’ve passed my view directly to him,
I don’t need to pressurise him further on same
thing.”
Onigbinde insisted that administration is the
bane of the nation’s football development while
he condemned the football house for half-
heartedly implementation of his suggestions on
match analysis.
“The major problem of football in the land is
administration, I’ve written several papers on the
need for a virile technical department which is
key to football development.
“In other lands it’s called technical and
development department because without
development then everybody could as well go
to sleep. I suggested that some people be
trained as match analysts but the persons I saw
on the list the NFF wants to train made me to
laugh.
“The major mistakes we keep repeating are to
assume that ex-footballers are automatic
administrators, it’s quite wrong. Jose Mourinho
and Arrigo Sacchi weren’t star players but you
can’t rival their administrative and technical
finesse.
“Being a star player doesn’t make you sound
administrator or technical expert, it’s clearly a
special calling,” Onigbinde said.