No excuse for failure, Chukwu tells Keshi

Stephen Keshi

A former coach of the Super Eagles, Christian Chukwu, has urged the returnee coach of the national team, Stephen Keshi, to give his best. Chukwu told The PUNCH that Keshi and his team have no excuse for failure in the qualifiers for the Rwanda 2016 African Nations Championship and the Gabon 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

Keshi signed a two-year contract with the Nigeria Football Federation last week to continue as the Eagles’ coach, ending months of controversy which followed the expiration of his previous contract that ended in July 2014.

Keshi’s immediate tasks are to prepare the Eagles for the AFCON qualifiers, which will start in June, and CHAN qualifiers, in which the Eagles are billed to face the Stallions of Burkina Faso in October.

Chukwu, who led the Eagles to a third place finish in the Tunisia 2004 AFCON, told our correspondent that the delay in reappointing Keshi was unnecessary, but noted that the coach has enough players and time to put them together.

He said, “I don’t think we have a new coach. It is continuity. The only thing is that the delay in signing the contract made it look like a new coach was appointed. This should have been done long time ago so that by now our team would have stabilised. But all the same, we have all the materials; we have the quality players to qualify and possibly win CHAN.

“Our league is very strong and our home-based players are improving. Keshi just needs to do a careful selection; going round the league venues asking the club coaches to assist him in the positions he needs players. I believe he (Keshi) will make it with the support of the NFF and everybody. We don’t expect the Eagles to have any excuse to fail to qualify for CHAN and AFCON, provided they are given all they require. 

I don’t think there is any excuse except they fail to play well on the pitch.”

Chukwu, an AFCON winning captain of the national team in 1980, advised Keshi to make the Nigeria-based players the core of his team.

He said playing CHAN will help prepare such players for the AFCON qualifiers, adding that the team can then be shored up with a few Europe-based players.

“Now, we can’t say we have many quality players in Europe. If we prepare the Nigerian league players properly, they will qualify us for the Nations Cup. Any of our players playing well in Europe, should be invited, but I don’t think this is the time to call over 20 players from Europe. It is time to invite only three or four players from Europe to fill positions where we don’t have strong home-based players,” Chukwu said.

He also advised Keshi not to underrate any of Egypt, Chad and Tanzania who make up Nigeria’s group in the AFCON qualifiers.