…Forgive Sunday Oliseh's utterances, Eguavoen begs NFF, Nigerians

Nigerian former international, Austin Equavoen, has pleaded with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and soccer-loving Nigerians to forgive the utterances of Super Eagles chief coach, Sunday Oliseh, and rather give constructive criticisms to help him qualify Eagles for the AFCON 2017 and Russia 2018 respectively.
In a telephone chat recently, the former Super Eagles head coach noted that though the NFF ought to understand the kind of person Oliseh is, on his part, the Eagles gaffer should be cautious of his status in the society and mind his utterances.
Asked if Eagles woeful performance at the CHAN tournament would affect Eagles qualifications for Nations and World Cups, Eguavoen said: “Nobody is happy with the Super Eagles now be¬cause sending us out in the first round of the CHAN competition is not really good for the game in the country.”
“Our early exit was as a product of our domestic league. Our league was over rated by the Nigerian media and the world statistics on leagues. We may have a better outing in the next one if our leagues improve in future.
“As for CHAN affecting qualifiers, I would say that I don’t think that our unimpressive outing in Rwanda will affect our Nations and World Cups qualifiers provided we forget whatever must have transpired in CHAN. Instead of querying this or that person, we should begin to channel all energies into the productive purpose of planning ahead.
“The energy we are dissipating talking about what was responsible for the Rwanda failure should be used to plan for the double legged ties against the pharaohs of Egypt,” he advised.
On his advice to Oliseh, he said: “It will be very difficult for me to advice Oliseh to talk less because he is the one in charge and should know how to go about his job. He has his own style and I know that everybody must not keep quite. Everybody with his nature, Siasia, Keshi and others are not quite. Mutiu and I are the quite type.
“Mourinho was still talking even when Chelsea was not doing well. There are people you cannot stop from talking. If we cannot change Mourinho, we cannot change Oliseh. Since it is in Oliseh’s nature to talk, the federation and the entire Nigerians must forgive and tolerate him.
“All we have to do is to let him know that he is getting to a certain position in the society where he must guide his utterances. He must also know that the qualification ticket means so much to us. He needs a lot of concentration ahead of the qualifiers.

Sun Sport