By Obi Ajuonuma, Lagos
Ex-international, Taribo West has identified frequent changing of national team handlers by the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) as one of the main reasons for the recent poor performance of the Super Eagles at international competitions
In the past six years the Super Eagles have been coached by five different coaches, namely late Shaibu Amodu, late Stephen Keshi, Daniel Amokachie, Sunday Oliseh and current coach Gernot Rohr with their best performance coming under coach Keshi at the 2013 AFCON in South Africa where the Eagles emerged as champions.
And recently some Nigerians have clamoured for the appointment of a local coach to takeover from Rohr just before his contract was renewed by the NFF.
Taribo, who spoke in a recent interview, noted that each time a new coach comes on board the chemistry of the team suffers setback.
According to the former Auxerre of France and Inter Milan of Italy defence strong man the longer a coach stays with a team the better for the team progress.
“There was a lot of trouble also when this rotational changing of coaches started happening in the national team. It really affected the national team because every coach that comes might have his own idea and also mindset of the kind of players he wants to pick for the national team,” said the former AC Milan of Italy and Enugu Rangers defence strong man.
Taribo, capped 42 times for the Super Eagles spanning from 1994 -2005 was also a key member of the gold winning U-23 Eagles at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA.
