Former Nigerian international, Mikel Obi has blamed former Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh for the early retirement of Vincent Enyeama from the senior national team.
In a scathing expose on his ObiOne podcast, Mikel went all out for Oliseh, labelling him “absolutely clueless” and “easily the worst manager he played under.”
According to Mikel, Oliseh was the brain behind the exit of Enyeama; and also brought about division in the national team.
“I remember the first day he came into the camp. Then we reported to the camp for International duties, then he came straight at me and Vincent Enyeama, the goalkeeper, who also was very powerful back then.
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“He came straight at us and Elderson Echiejile, and he said a few things. He said he heard there was a lot of player power with us.
“Then Enyeama was like, ‘What’s wrong with you? Where are you getting all of these from? We are a nice group, and you just come in, and the first thing is to attack us?
“He was like ‘I heard about you guys.’ And then Enyeama stood up and told him he couldn’t say that because we had been here for so many years. They started arguing, and literally, they were going to have a fight.
“He took Enyeama out of the team, and he came at us saying he was going to take us out of the team. He said he was going to take us out of the team; he said he was going to make sure we didn’t play anymore.”
“Enyeama could not take it, and despite my pleas, he left the camp angrily and never came back.”
“He (Oliseh) had absolutely no clue of how a manager is. He was a fantastic guy in his playing days, but as a coach, he was very terrible. He had no clue what he was doing.
“The players never understood anything he was doing, and he did not know what he was doing. He was just confused because he just came in and destroyed the team’s togetherness.
“His excuse when he got fired was that the people and FA did voodoo on him not to succeed. He was easily the worst manager I played under.
“He was so bitter with everybody, jealous with everybody, and had no respect for speaking to anybody, whether the physio or anybody,” he added.
18 Comments
Okay Mr Mikel, you retired from playing and decided to be a podcaster of all available role in soccer for retired players abi? Okay oo continue, by the time you run out of ideas or out of what to say and whom to attack, pls dnt come near our NT with credible qualification okay, bcos this the right time you shd have get some certification either as a coach or whatever certification needed within soccer world but nope, all u wanna do is talk and dance, continue sogbo.
Nice one @ Femi. Mikel is slowing losing it without knowing. May God help our ex-international. NOT EVERY INTERVIEW A WISE MAN WILL GRANT.
Speak to the issue he raised and stop saying nonsense
IN THIS LIFE, IF A PERSON WANT TO FULLY IN CHARGE OF SOMETHING, HE MUST CERTAINLY HAVE ANTAGONIST OR OPPOSITION. EVERYBODY HAS THEIR OWN ENEMY
** YAYA TOURE & IBRAHIMOVIC CAN SAY GUARDIOLA IS THE WORST MANAGER THEY HAVE EVER PLAY WITH.
** RONALDO Can say TENHAG IS THE WORST MANAGER HE HAS EVER PLAY WITH
** I.K UCHE can also say KESHI is the worst manager as a result of LIES statement Keshi mmade against him
** AIYEBBENI also can say EQUAVOEN Is a worst manager because he bench him in one of World cup qualifiers.
Sunday Oliseh is an emotionally unbalanced individual, a psychopath who should have nothing to do with coaching football
WHY YOU GUYS HARDLY ACCEPT THE TRUTH THAT IS WHY NIGERIA WILL NEVER PROGRESS
MIKEL OBI SAID THE TRUTH WHAT ARE YOU SAYING HERE VINCENT IS STILL ALIVE
WHAT MIKEL SAID IS RIGHT STOP PRETENDING LIKE YOU DON’T KNOW THAT WHAT HE SAID IS RIGHT
WHAT BROUGHT THE ISSUES OF YOU SAYING THAT HE STOPS PLAYING AND JOIN TO HE BROADCASTING
why wait till now
Oliseh isn’t a coach and Mikel is saying nothing but the truth. Why hasn’t Oliseh Sunday coach a national team elsewhere since he quit the SE job in a Mafia fashion? He should stay clear of SE and look for job elsewhere
Well I’m not even against him been a podcaster, blogger or whatever he wanna be, I’m only asking him not come come near our NT without a credible certification, if he decided to be talking down on pple and turn himself into Nigeria version of Jamie Carragher that criticize anything that goes against him, that’s fine.
It’s the right of any coach to lay down his rules to his players and select whom ever he deem fit to implement his tactics, just as @larry stated right there, can they decided to leave there club side coaches because he confronted them? He keep dishing out unnecessary issues that have been long over with, till now we yet to hear from any of them saying oliseh ask them to pay before been call or any form of bride, all oliseh crime was trying to instill discipline on them.
God bless you Femi, some people just hate oliseh for selfish reason. Please go back to what mikel said, he said oliseh’s first day he came at him and enyeama, the question to ask is why would he do such? Obviously there is no smoke without fire. There are 3 sides to the truth, so lets wait and hear Oliseh version. I know clearly well a lot of those players then were stubborn and arrogant most especially to the local coaches.
Thank you Mikel for exposing how powerful you guys were.
Enyeama’s version of why he rejected invitation is quite contradictory to your prodcast.
In my own opinion, if all you said were correct description of what transpired, it goes to show how strong minded and commitment Oliseh was to stand straight at playwrs he suspected could affect his control of the team. I only blamed him fir usung direct confrontation whe he could have been more tactical. However,your sttitude and the way Enyeama reacted were absolutely abnormal and dusrespectful. Would any of you have reacted a foreign coach in that manner ?
Would any one of have treated your coaches that manner in your Clubs ?
Why are you coming out to say this at this period ?
Oliseh is one of the few Nigerian coaches that have won the recognition of a foreign league.
Well, you just validated one of the reasons why some of us will never support local coaches to lead the national team.
We are quite aware of what the nff is cooking these days with local coach who is not only clueless and corrupt, but an ethnic bigot.
The problem i see here is a coach that presumed that the player power that happened during his playing era when Stephen keshi and few other players runs the dressing room was something he thought was in existence and he did not want to see when he was a coach. He should have been a gradual process. At least spend time with the team, don’t just believe in rumor and what you read in the media. No mature coach come in his first day meeting with the players and started pointing accusing fingers on some selected players.
And to think of it, he benched Mikel for Sylvester ighonu (a player who was managed by his bro Churchill oliseh) that was ridiculous.
@larry you are one of the few people that still have their thinking caps on. From what Mikel said it is obvious to conclude that had Oliseh not frustrated he would have cut the clips of these mediocre players calling themselves stars. All great manager like Ferguson or Gladiola have the same traces of leadership like Oliseh. No wonder Nigerian players can not stand a disciplined coach .
Oliseh knew there was cabal in the team and he needed to clamp down on them but unfortunately the FA and the players sabotaged him .
A coach who doesn’t accept bribe is what we need. That was how Mikel said many coaches were relieved of their jobs in Chelsea because the players wanted it so. If Nigeria really wanted to achieve anything meaningful in football there must be strong code of conduct as practiced in developed countries like Germany, England. Players must be told that it’s a privilege for them to wear the jersey of Nigeria and that they are representing over 260 million Nigerians. I keep telling people that the two matches we played during world cup qualifying were purposely drew by the players ,they were not committed to put their bodies on the line ,if eagles put their bodies on the line hardly can any African nation beat them . 2013 team had fee just two stars in Mikel and Moses but all the players were willing to die on the field irrespective of the tatics
Well I think Mikel is right .
He is in an interracial marriage with a Russian girl. Like most interracial relationships of one coming from the bottom of the race, socially. He has not been accepted by white people. I remember him crying when turkish people made fun of him and his family. Now he is trying to come back to Nigerians good grace, constantly talking. He has become annoying, like most retirees he sounds like he is meddling.
Having tribal sentiments with current super eagles players, saying he wants to manage and etc. Why dont you go talk to the Russians, or is it the white people wont even listen to you. These former player podcasters, always got something to say. He has become a distraction.
Wow! A scathing assessment by Mikel on Oliseh. I think has been yearning to say this to oliseh. It is clear that Oliseh dis not have a clue. There is the tactical side of coaching , anyone can get a a uefa coaching certificate but the ability to manage players is different gravy and the best in the game have mastered this.
Oliseh is a polarizing figure as player and as coach. However, one thing you can not take from him is that he is a passionate individual who absolutely loves his nation, very Frank and honest. Mikel probably should not have come out to say what he said but then he is entitled to his opinion. Oliseh just did not have the experience to manage that profile of players.
@Golden Child: “Passionate individual who absolutely loved his country” enough said.
And that is the sychopath some people are clamouring and championing his return as SE coach.
May such disaster never rear it’s head again.
Mikel, say no more…..we all know the man Sunday Oliseh….a prima donna to the core, self assuming and arrogant without trace. No one else can ever be like him. I once watched him analyze the lobbed assist he gave to yekini vs Gabon at Tunisia 94….like it was some rocket science…..hell we’ve been playing route 1 football and locating teammates with long balls since we were kids. You don’t need to be lettered or to be a scientist to locate a striker running into space with a long ball.
His Nigeria brother won a league title in Albania, another won the Turkish Cup….till today he never congratulated any of them, they took the glory that was supposed to be his…..but he’s always quick to praise Arteta or Pep on internet pages. He once claimed to be the first Nigerian to earn a UEFA Pro license when the likes of Mike Emenalo had long earned it (without making noise about it) and had risen as high as being assitant coach at chelsea, 2nd in command to Avram Grant.
He took our homebased to chan, verbally abused the poor boys everyday in training….he went as far as not shaking any of his own players or allowing them to touch him….he accused them of carrying juju to camp. Hell who does that….keeping malice with your own squad…??? Little wonder they crashed out in the group stages.
Under his watch as SE manager, we lost Vincent enyeama, Emmanuel emenike and Ambrose Efe to his utter mannerlessness, lack of respect and poor man management skills. After destroying the team he ran away when failure to qualify for AFCON was imminent….accusing his employers of using juju on him…LMAOoo. What a joke of a person.
He apparently didn’t want what he did as a player and captain to other managers be done to him as a coach that was why his first mission was to break the backbone of the SE and rid the team of its experienced players. Forgetting that the experienced players in any football team hold the key to the success and survival of any coach.
Everywhere this man has coached, things has always ended in disaster….same way everywhere he played since his Juventus days things always ended bitterly….including in the national team.
Your attitude they say determines your altitude.
Once again….Say no more Mikel…the man Sunday Oliseh we know. Fantastic man as a player, but manager from hell he is as a coach.
May we never again be pushed to that point when we hire him as SE coach. He claims he is so good, 94 squad prima Donna. The likes of Pitso Mosimane and Florent Ibengue has proven you can get jobs in Africa if they wouldn’t want to give you any in Europe….Oliseh and his group should go and build their career elsewhere on this continent. The SE job is not their birthright.