Ikpeba: Oliseh needs to grow into maturity

Nifemi Daniel

1997 African Footballer of the Year, Victor Ikpeba, has urged embattled Head Coach of the Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh, to grow up into maturity rather than dwelling on frivolities.

Oliseh at the weekend described his critics as insane following the dismal performance of the Eagles at the just concluded African Nations Championship in Rwanda.

Ikpeba, while speaking during a sports programme on a cable station monitored in Lagos, said Oliseh must demonstrate manners and morals in dealing with criticism.

“I am not here to advise Oliseh but I have the right to defend my colleagues,” the former African Footballer of the Year began.

“They have done their best for this country; money is not everything in life, manners, morals, integrity are very important. It does not matter how many times you played for this country, the good thing is that you served your fatherland.

The former Monaco of France striker said the national team handler should be ready for constant bashing as long as he remains at the saddle and hitting back at critics would only compound his problems.

“Criticism is part of football, he was not condemned to win CHAN, if the team had reached the last four, I think Nigerians would have understood. It is sad he said CHAN was the least important CAF competition, but it is still a competition.

“The expectation was so high after we defeated Niger and Nigerians were disappointed that we crashed out, and instead of him to say let us move on, he is angry that he was criticised. Nigerians are passionate about football and they will criticise you if you don’t give them results. I was criticised when I lost that penalty in 2000 Nations Cup. Criticism is part of football,” he added.

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