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By Oluwole Francis
Former Director of Sports, Nigerian Army and the owner of Woodpecker Football Club, Brigadier General Olatoye has said the Super Eagles always leave it too late to approach games saying the era of minnows in Africa and world football is over.
He said though Nigeria remains a giant in football as far as Africa is concerned, he added that the fact that the three-time African champions struggled during the qualifiers has clearly shown that the players need to buckle up when they put on the green and white jersey and grind out favourable results.
“Everybody says we are a giant of Africa. Yes, nobody can doubt that. But we have left it too late to approach games,” Olatoye said while speaking with Gongnews.net at a scouting program organized at Area 3 Sports Complex, Abuja.
He added, “I have to be sincere with you. When you have played five draws out of eight games, you win two and then it’s going to be very tight. And football is growing Everybody is growing. Look at Cape Verde, look at other countries. So we need to do some more work. As they always say go back to the drawing board and do some more planning.
“The previous World cup we didn’t go to Qatar. This one again is gradually going out of our hands. What do we think we are doing wrongly that is not making us to do well? What I would say is that it all boils down to preparation and then our players also need to know the kind of responsibility they carry on their shoulders.
“The playoffs are there. I don’t know how the playoffs will go. Is it going to be on point? Is it going to be on position for you… and if you come second you go play somewhere else or they’re going to consider people. But as it were, it’s no longer in our hands .
“It’s not about the NFF alone. It’s an all-encompassing thing. The players, too, also need to know that, just as I said earlier, the responsibility rest on their shoulders. And let us look inwards. We need to develop our league.
“When you look at the last CHAN and a country like Madagascar, an island, just somewhere would be able to raise a team that gets to the finals of Chan, it speaks a lot. It wasn’t a fluke. They must have done something. They must have been doing something about their league to produce those types of players.”
