Former Nigerian International Says Rohr ‘Is Not A Coach’
Former Nigeria international, Felix Owolabi, has expressed resentment over the reign of Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr, especially over the team’s unimpressive display against Cape Verde as well as in the other fixtures of the African World Cup qualifying matches en route to Qatar 2022.
Owolabi described Rohr’s five-year reign as a period that domestic league players became stagnated. However, Nigeria last Tuesday qualified for the World Cup play-offs under Rohr after successfully booking a place in the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
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,” Owolabi said. “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.”
Owolabi salo stressed that Rohr’s greatest undoing was abandoning the domestic league, the Nigeria Professional Football league (NPFL).
“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,” Owolabi added. “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. 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 is simply playing on Nigerians’ intelligence. I think we have the power to sack a coach at any time and engage another one.”
- Read more: We Have Not Sacked Gernot Rohr, Says NFF
- Read more: Abuja Fans ‘Unimpressed’ With Super Eagles Performance (VIDEO)
“Look at the case of the Egyptian coach that was sacked and another one employed almost immediately during the World Cup qualifiers,” Owolabi added.
“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.”
Chidi Nwoke/The Guardian.
