Why NFF Should Let Keshi Be, Says Adebiyi.

Former Nigeria Football Association vice chairman and chairman technical committee, Brigadier General Gregory Adebiyi (rtd) has said it would in the interest of the Nigeria Football Federation to stick with Stephen Keshi than recruit another. Speaking to our correspondent, he said, since they decided to have an indigenous coach and hired Keshi, they should work with him to move Nigeria forward. “He has done well by winning the Nations Cup in 2013 but we made a mistake of thinking about winning the title again without giving a thought about qualifying for the competition where that title has to be defended. Therefore the fault is ours as Nigerians. Our case is worse than that of Spain which went to the World Cup as holders and left after the group stage but we went to the world cup and made it to round two.  For the Cup of Nations, we failed to qualify so as to defend the title. These are two different situations. The similarity however is that we depended on stars that failed us and Spain too depended on stars that also them. However we should emulate Spain that has realized that it would take at least ten years to build another generation of players and are onto it already by not changing the coach. Rather than take actions to move forward, we are still haggling about whether the coach should be or not.”

Adebiyi, who was a former Armed Forces director of Health and Physical Education, warned that if the country to beware of changing coaches because it has consequences

  I am of the view that they should work with Keshi to regenerate the national team because if they do away with him now, where are they going to get another good local coach who is as good? To me, Keshi remains far ahead other local coaches around and I think they should not make the mistake of replacing him now to avoid creating more problems,” he stated, But he has also cautioned Keshi about his public utterance and image he presents “My problem with Keshi he talks too much without first giving a thought what he says but I would advice him to hire a manager to represent him publicly which is what coaches and managers all over the world do. If he has a professional to manage him, I expect it would reduce the very tense atmosphere created by his public utterances and eye with which Nigerians see Nigerians him. It is also going to improve his relationship with NFF and enhance his performance as national coach,” he added.