Lagos – Success has many fathers, but a loser is an orphan. This seems to be the lot of Super Eagles of Nigeria goalkeeper, Gernot Rohr, having failed to win the just concluded Africa Cup of nations in Egypt.
At the end of the tournament won by Algeria for the second time after beating Senegal, Africa’s top ranked team 1-0 on Friday night, Super Eagles maintained their tradition of not losing third place matches beating Tunisia 1-0 on Wednesday for their eight bronze medal.
But as the players and some Nigerians are celebrating the bronze medal, there is another school of thought who believes the time was up for the Franco-German.
Rohr, who was sacked on 22 December 2015, by Burkina Faso national football team as manager, was shortlisted for the Guinea national team job in July 2016 but was not given the job. However, in August 2016, he was named Super Eagles manager by the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Amaju Pinnick.
Rohr has played 44 games, won 26, drew nine and lost nine. He qualified Nigeria with a game to spare for the 2018 FIFA World Cup from a group termed group of death. The group included Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia. He also qualified the team for the just concluded Africa Cup of nations with a game to spare, after the team failed to qualify for the immediate past two editions of the tournament.
After Super Eagles were knocked out of the 2019 AFCON by Algeria 2-1 at the semis, Pinnick dispelled every insinuation that Rohr will be booted out.
“Gernot Rohr will not be sacked as Super Eagles coach. He will remain in the job. I have complete confidence in him,” Pinnick revealed, adding, “Gernot has taken us to the semi-final, the target we set for him.
“There are some people that have been calling on me and the federation to sack Gernot. But I am not going to do that.
“In fact, Gernot is going on a refresher training period with Bayern Munich after the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. We have a long-term plan with him.”
However, we learnt that Pinnick could not be sacked him because of a clause in his contract which will force the NFF to pay him $1 million.
Despite Pinnick’s stance, the call for his sack is now deafening. Those who alignwith Pinnick believe he should be given more time, citing the time given to Clemens Westerhof, who qualified the country for its ever World Cup in 1994 as an excuse.
But those who think his time was up, state that in modern day football, a coach doesn’t have to spend 10 years on the job before proving himself. To them, you cannot give what you don’t have and that Rohr has reached his wits end. His performance at the World Cup crashing out at the group stage despite having a life line of reaching the knockout stage showed that he does not have what it takes to take the Super Eagle to the next level.
They also argued that the just concluded AFCON proved that he just don’t have it. To them his selection, substitutions do not change the team from a losing point to a winning point. This school of thought believes that the Super Eagles have what it takes to win the 2019 AFCON, if the coach knew what to do.
They feel that Rohr has to do the needful by throwing in the towel now. Staying or hanging on to the job will only protects his interest but surely not for the good of Nigeria or her football as the team need to move forward.
Ex-International, Jonathan Akpoborie, belongs to the group that insisted the coach should be honourable enough to go.
“Wonderful!! Just read that Amaju [Pinnick] is willing to spend Nigeria’s money to further an old European’s career,” Akpoborie tweeted.
“Let me explain something to you sir, coaching is talent. Rohr does not have it. Stop wasting Nigeria’s money
“I am just thinking aloud. I believe the reason behind the refresher course issue, is personal because if you really think about everything, it can never be for the benefit of Nigeria nor football in Nigeria.”
Former Super Eagles captain, Chief Segun Odegbami (MON), who win the trophy for Nigeria in 1980, scored the team very low in performance in Egypt, saying, “Their performance was pedestrian. They did not deserve to win the match or AFCON 2019. Gernot Rohr has served his time. He should go honourably after the championship,” he said.
According to him, “poor coaching, inexperience of some of the players, absence of a true leader in the team, bad goalkeeping and not enough quality players,” stopped Nigeria from reaching the final of the AFCON, noting that Super Eagles need, “A very good coach, with plenty of knowledge and experience and who understands the Nigerian-player psychology, and is a football teacher. The stupendous wages paid to a coach without pedigree must stop.”
“Rohr cannot say Nigeria has been unfair to him….rather he has been unfair to us. He once cried out of interference from his bosses in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the entire Nigerian football community threw its weight behind him. There was outrage. In the end, he won the battle. He got his own scouts and players assessors,” noted MacTony Taiwo, former Team Manager of the defunct Julius Berger FC of Lagos.
“He picked his team during the World Cup qualifiers. He also picked his World Cup squad that ended the race in the group stage.
“He was part of the negotiating team during talks between the NFF leadership and the senior players on financial incentives for the Mundial. There was no friction before, during and after the bargain.
“Yet what Nigeria got from Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup was bags of apologies from players who underperformed and even from Rohr himself.
“It’s rather unfortunate that we couldn’t progress forward. Not good enough with all the motivations which is the language players understand. Where have we got it wrong? God bless Skippo (Keshi) in his grave.
“Nigeria coaches would be better for us. Give them half of what you are paying our foreign coach, and see results.”
For sports journalist, Desmond Ekwueme, Rohr is not the poorest of national team coaches in the world despite that Nigeria has roundly been labeled as the world capital of poverty. “For a coach who allegedly receives about $47,000 (N16.7million) monthly, Rohr should be grateful to us given that his CV doesn’t even attract such earnings but that is not the issue at hand since we had already employed him. Rohr nonetheless is not the least earning national team coach in the world. The record is there for all to see.
“Perhaps, Nigerians or NFF failed or refused to read meaning to his continuous excuse of not having a Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in his squad.
“This derogatory excuse he has always put forward before, during and after every tournament. Rohr has continued to belittle players from Arsenal like Alex Iwobi, Samuel Chukwueze of Villareal and Winifred Ndidi of Leicester City as not being world class.
“I dare ask, how many world class players are in Algeria or Madagascar that defeated Rohr’s team in Egypt? A good coach makes world class players. They don’t drop from the skies. Just discover a talent and mould him to your choice. Short and simple.
“Going to Egypt for the 2019 AFCON, Rohr and his team had all they requested for plus more from the Federal Government, well-meaning Nigerians, state governors and captains of industries.
“Never in the history of the Super Eagles has the team been so motivated financially, yet they ended in the semis.
“Recall that the 2013 AFCON victorious squad led by Late Stephen Keshi was not even motivated enough yet the team excelled with six home-based players unlike Egypt 2019 squad which had just Ikechukwu Ezenwa as home based player.
“The Algerian team that defeated Super Eagles had close to 50% of the squad members as local players. Indeed, it is time for Rohr to go,” said Ekwueme.
Moses Adebanjo, former chairman, Lagos State Referees (Football) Association, said Rohr has tried his best but his best was not good enough for the country and so he should go.
“Rohr has tried his best, but his best was not good enough. For instance, who did he discover in the last three years, or has he beaten any of our local coaches’ best achievements in national team? Why paying so much to him and getting less?
“I think age is telling on him, at 66 years, let him go and start playing with his grandchildren. However, we all know our team is below average, we have been playing without goalkeepers since the qualifiers. “We all know but could not do anything because we are not the coach. We all know element of luck get limit. The best side won, it is not because we lost the match to the Algerians, and as a matter of fact we did not play well. His substitution is even more terrible”, said Adebanjo.
Tonnex Chukwu, former Media Officer of Enymiba FC, said Rohr lacked the basic qualities of a good coach and so he should go.
“I never saw anything good in the man, he lacks the three basic qualities of a good coach; Game management; He is technically deficient; He is outdated with his tactical applications.
“Great Coaches do not allow his ineptitude in any of these three to be so brazenly exposed just like each of his three group matches showed. Yes they will say no two matches are the same, but Rohr is not it at all,” he said.
Another veteran sports journalist, Everest Onyewuchi, said the NFF should not waste time to sack Rohr. “Rohr should go now. If the officialdom, NFF, top brass share the sentiments of majority of football-loving Nigerians, even if Rohr hangs on to his contract, the NFF will boot him out and pay him off.
“So it’s not about Rohr quitting on his own volition, but the NFF showing indignation and sending him away. Enough of his excuses,” he said.
However, Pinnick has passed a vote of confidence in the coach and said he will not be sacked. This might however not be unconnected with the fact that Rohr has a $1million pay-off clause in his contract (about N370 million) which seems to be a huge amount for the NFF to pay if the coach should be asked to go.
To them, Westerhorf stayed for some time with the team before he got his rhythms right. “At Algiers 90, Westerhorf won Silver, at Senegal 92 he won Bronze and then in Tunisia 94, he won Gold.
“Let us also remember that in 1989, preceding 1990, same Westerhorf failed to qualify Nigeria for Italian 90 World Cup and was never sacked.
“I think Rohr needs more time to win laurels with this team. He has already taken us to the World Cup, and this is about his first AFCON, a tournament Nigeria missed the last two editions”, said Dapo Ogunlewe.
Musbau Razak, a football follower said: “I don’t agree with the sacking of the coach. The Nigerian team is evolving and still developing. These are very young players and they will keep on improving and blend together.
“You don’t gain anything by always changing coaches. Alliou Cisse and the Algerian coach, Djamel Belmadi may be local coaches but they have much more experience players to call up.
“Also don’t forget the fact that Rohr achieved his aim: semifinal was the initial target after we’ve missed two consecutive AFCON. Has he not delivered on that? He has! Must we change coach after every ouster from a major tournament? No!” said Razak.
The post Should Gernot Rohr Go Or Not? appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Source: Independent
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