The newly appointed coach of the Super Eagles Amodu Shaibu has asked that Nigerians be moderate in their expectations of the team even as he promised to give his best in salvaging Nigeria’s hopes of participating at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Shaibu, along with Salisu Yusuf, Gbenga Ogunbote and Alloysius Agu were named in the new Super Eagles technical crew on Thursday, with their immediate task being prosecuting the last round of qualifying matches to Africa’s biggest soccer showpiece next January.
The team’s new Media Officer, Toyin Ibitoye, quoted the coach assaying, “We have been given an assignment that is tough and very challenging but not one that is impossible to accomplish. We will give it our very best and see how things can be turned around.”
“I think this situation is very similar to what we had in the qualifiers to the 2002 World Cup. We worked hard, did our bit and were fortunate to have results elsewhere also going our way.”
“There are some things that, as humans, we cannot control just as there a lot more we can influence. I can assure everybody that we will give this assignment all we have and then hope that all other things fall in place for us.”
“Let us all be modest in our expectations so that we do not put ourselves under undue pressure. Let everybody involved in the game in Nigeria pull together in the right direction and then we see what we can achieve with the next two games as mandated by the the Nigeria Football Federation.”Shaibu said.
On his specific plans for the games in November, the Super Eagles coach said a detailed plan of action will be unveiled to the media as soon as ongoing deliberations are concluded.
“Planning has commenced a lot of deliberations and discussions are already going on. We need to be very thorough with all aspects of our planning. Once we have concluded all these, we will unveil them to the media.”He concluded.
The Super Eagles are third in Group A of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers behind South Africa and Congo. Nigeria will need maximum points from their remaining games to be sure of their place at the biennial tournament she won in South Africa in 2013.
