The former English football star John Fashanu has reacted to the recent dispute between coach Sunday Oliseh and and former Super Eagles skipper Vincent Enyeama that saw the latter throw in the towel.
In a chat with Daily Sun, Fashanu slammed coach Oliseh for instigating Enyeama’s retirement
He said: “I don’t want to sound like taking sides, but it is just improper for a greenhorn coach to sack a seasoned captain of a team on flimsy excuse of reporting late to camp or having disagreement with him.
“I can’t understand the reason a coach who just resumed would sack the captain of his squad that way because a coach that wants to succeed should not be the one destabilizing his own team, and it is just unthinkable that you would sack a key player a day before a crucial match. That didn’t sound mature enough.
“In my playing career, I knew of players that never spoke to each other in training and in the match. Sometimes, for six months they don’t stop to say hi to each other, but immediately they cross the line into the pitch, they drop all those and blend as a team.
“It also happens between a coach and some players, but so far as the player is what you need to win your matches, you cope with him, not as a friend, but professionally as one that makes your work succeed.
“For instance Enyeama wanted to opt out of the team in retirement like Oliseh said, the best way to handle his case and take the captainship from his is not the degrading approach. If Enyeama is treated that way as a senior player, then Oliseh is sending wrong signals to the younger ones that look up to Enyeama.
“Even if Enyeama should be dropped as the captain, with the years he has served the nation, Oliseh would have demonstrated leadership to ask him, for the sake of breeding a cohesive squad, to come to the teammates and name his successor even after he and Oliseh must have on their own agreed to that. To strip him of the badge and give it to another was disrespectful and a way of telling him he doesn’t matter or that leadership in the team is not respected.”
Reacting in the same vein, the chairman of the media sub-committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Hon Suleiman Yahaya Kwande, declared that Enyeama deserved to be treated with respect by the team’s new coach.
Kwande said: “I am worried just like every other patriotic Nigerian over what is happening in the Super Eagles but the good thing is that we are trying to see how we can tackle it. It will be as soon as possible God’s willing.
“The way forward is that the president and his two vices are in Belgium to see how they can tackle the situation. If you ask me, I would say that Vincent deserves better treatment. I don’t have full details of what transpired in Belgium between him and Oliseh, I have read some sketches of what happened but we should not forget Vincent is a player who has served Nigeria very and by my own consideration, he deserves better treatment than this.”
Enyeama retired from the international football after the shot-stopper fell out with coach Sunday Oliseh in the team’s camp in Belgium.
The drama in Belgium allegedly started after Oliseh told Enyeama to leave the camp for questioning his choice of Ahmed Musa as captain.
Enyeama, however, denied the allegation saying his confrontation with Oliseh arose after his dead mother was insulted
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