May 14, 2020
If you can take a moment to sit back, relax, and then attempt to make sense about how Nigeria has decided to fire and select its senior national team manager across time, you will sure make little sense of it. It is a cyclical abyss. By this one refers to the fact that it is cyclical because same things are repeated over time. It is an abyss because it appears to be a bottomless pit of hell, to which a conclusion, an endpoint, or a resolution is never in sight.
It is simply a matter of looking at the present coach and deeming him tactically clueless (whatever that means for a coach that is learned, certified, and experienced) and then making a case for hiring one that does not resemble him. That is if he is local then we must hire a foreigner, if he is a foreigner then surely a local will be the solution. Soon enough we will add, if he is young, then let's hire an older guy, if he is European then let's hire a South American. Searching for the criteria for hiring coaches in Nigeria is like searching for a needle in a hay stack and that is if the needle is in fact among the hay. No deep thought is needed, let's simply throw up all manner of solutions whether they are logical or not. In the end, the cycle becomes largely from an indigenous coach to a foreign one and then back to indigenous and an endless cycle develops. What a pity?
Throwing Around Vague Concepts
Of course, a large number of analyses and fans who are at the vanguard that ultimately generates this cycle of abyss have very little clue of what they talk about. All they need do is throw around vague concepts for which they rarely define nor can they even define them given that by defining them they are liable to being proven wrong. Thus, it is better to keep the ideas vague. For instance, the favorite tags include tactically clueless, world class or good coach, ability to select best players, among other vague terms bandied around by those who claim to know. Meanwhile, the reality of past failures in selecting these coaches is never deeply examined.
What exactly is tactically clueless? For a national team level coach this term is absurd. No national team coach can be tactically clueless considering that they have experience at that level and they are more likely certified. Of course, the critics, in most cases, are neither experienced nor are they certified. What the critics have is an authority to write or talk in some mass medium. It is like the blind critiquing a beauty contest that they are unable to see. What is more likely with a national team coach is simply that he is tactically outwitted in a particular game (often not in all), that his wards are unable to execute the tactics based on a successful resistance by the opponent or some other impediments, including psychological unreadiness.
Nigeria's search for a world class coach is one in which the term 'world class' is never established. But maybe I should suggest what it means from my own subjective stance. A world class coach is one who has a pattern of success with a club or national team that generates global notoriety. In essence, there are few such coaches that exist at any given time. But by defining this term, our claim suddenly becomes falsifiable! Well, here is why. The only Nigerian coach that could be called world class was Otto Gloria who coached the team from 1979 to 1982. Gloria had been globally recognized for his Benfica teams that won the European championships in the 1960s and was sought by Brazilian authorities to coach Brazil at the 1970 World Cup. How did Gloria do with Nigeria? Not particularly good. He did win the 1980 AFCON that Nigeria hosted. However, his record of efficiency is at best middling and he coached the team to a shock group phase elimination at the 1982 AFCON.
The ability to select Nigeria's best players is another idea thrown around. Each analyst and each fan has a player that they believe should not only be invited but star
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