An appeal has gone to the Sports Minister and Chairman National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr. Tamuno Danagogo, to decisively wade in and advise the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on how it would carefully handle the issue of contract expiration of Stephen Keshi with national team so as not to make avoidable mistakes and regret later.
This is the view of an ex- international, Christopher Nwosu while reacting to a question from our Correspondent on the issue under discourse. He maintains that Keshi has given the national a new lease of life and the only way to consolidate is to give him the nod to continue.
The coach he observes has been able to establish a team that made great showing in the World Cup and by the next Championship these players and others that would be injected into it would mature and take on Africa and the World by 2015 and 2018 respectively.
‘The clauses in his contract should be flexible so he will put pen on paper as quickly as possible so he can start up the programme for the qualifiers for Morocco 2015 Nations Cup. We should try as much as possible not to leave any gap as only total concentration would do the country any good. I will also suggest that there should be true reconciliation between the Federation and Keshi in the spirit of the game. His first term should be seen as a learning process and so this second a consolidation journey,’ he appeals.
Nwosu believes that if Keshi’s contract is renewed, he will not start from the scratch again rather he will consolidate on the gains and bring in the young players he discovered who he could not accommodate at the ongoing World Cup. According to him, the coach has garnered more experience that would help him in future assignment and called on football authorities in the country to look inwards so as to avoid regrets in the nearest future.
‘It is not hidden that Keshi has shown enough zeal for the national team job. We all knew where our Super Eagles were before he came on board. The issue not about his performance rather he needs more time and free hand to strengthen what he has built.”
He has brought back deep interest, urgency, discipline and passion to the national team and the players have imbibed such and it will be upbeat in his second coming. We should explore all angles to ensure we retain him,’ Nwosu informs.