Amodu, respect is mutual

The Super Eagles coach,Shaibu Amodu no doubt has come a long way with the national team with result to show for it.

From helping the Eagles to qualify for the Beach World Cup, Africa Nations Cup and the FIFA World Cup twice, the man no doubt has achieved a lot as a national team coach.

He also has some enviable are his records at club level. So he has every right to ask Nigerians to stop disrespecting him when calls for his head reached the heavens immediately we qualified for the world cup.

Critics not all wrong

While the coach is right to demand some respect, which he actually deserves, it is wrong of him to view every criticism as disrespect. Some of his ardent critics, including this writer, are not criticising him for the sake of criticism but they are doing it because they want a better Eagles and a better Amodu.

In fairness to his critics, the performance by Amodu and his boys during the World Cup qualifiers gave many of us heartache.

Any team that played the way they did in their first game against Mozambique deserves nothing but castigation.

With Tunisia, the only country we considered a big threat to our world Cup dream, beating Kenya at home, the least anybody expect from the Eagles was victory over Mozambique in Maputo.

But for the duration of the match, our boys were casual; they played as if nothing was at stake.

Their performance even in the victory against Kenya was uninspiring. After the game Nigerians literarily gave up on the Eagles.

Then came the five star performances against Tunisia away. This no doubt restored our confidence, but two unimpressive performances against Tunisia and Mozambique in Abuja led millions to give up on the Eagles and Amodu, once more.

Our qualification was not by our grace, but the grace of God, and Mozambique who played their hearts out in order to be in the Nations Cup.

If Mozambique had nothing to play for, and they had been casual against Tunisia, and the North Africa had won, a 10-0 defeat of Kenya by Amodu and his boys 10-0 defeat would not haveamounted to anything.

Humility in victory

It is in view of the above that Amodu should have been humble in victory, thank Nigerians for their support, and ask for another chance with the Nations Cup.

And talking about the Nations Cup, while I favour Amodu to lead Nigeria to Angola, I honestly believe that the coach must not only be allowed to be in charge, he must take charge of the team.

There are some players who have no business in the national team that Amodu keeps inviting. These are spent forces using the national team to get new clubs. I believe it is time Amodu start selecting players on current form and not sentiments.

I still don’t understand why Amodu keeps ignoring Fulham midfielder Dickson Etuhu.

If there is anything personal between them, Amodu must cast that aside and invite the best for the nation.

Amodu’s tactical formation has also been questioned on many occasions. I am not a football coach, but I know enough about football to understand that you do not field three defensive midfielders in a match in which you need to score goals, Amodu did this in many matches during the qualifiers.

Feelers from the players’ camp also revealed that he is not assertive in dealing with the players and many of them have little respect for him.

Amodu must correct all these lapses and build a team that can challenge for the Nations Cup title.

Nations Cup performance

The Nations Cup presents Amodu with the opportunity to take Nigeria to the World Cup. While it will a tough task to give the coach an ultimatum to either win the Nations Cup or be sacked, if the team plays the way they did during the World Cup qualifiers at the tournament, Amodu should not wait for his sack letter, he should just resign honourably and move on with his life.

But if the Eagles put a brilliant performance and make it to the last four, I believe Amodu should be given all the support he needs to succeed in South Africa.

So, Amodu, prove your critics wrong by playing good football in Angola and get results. Remember, respect is mutual, when you do your job well, even when you fail to win people will respect you, but even if you win the Nations Cup and played the way the Eagles did during the qualifiers, football fans will still call for your sack.