Superstar Nigerian football player and Chelsea legend, John Mikel Obi has described a former Super Eagles head coach, Sunday Oliseh as the worst coach he ever played under.
Obi made the comments while speaking on a recent episode of his ObiOne podcast where he said Oliseh caused chaos in the Eagles’ camp on his first day.
Recall that Sunday Oliseh became the head coach of the national team following the passing of his predecessor, late Stephen Keshi in 2015.
He was, however, relieved of his duty after seven months of service to the national team where Obi said Oliseh consistently complained of poor treatment from his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
According to the former Eagles captain, one of the major talking points of his seven-month career as coach of the Super Eagles was his misunderstanding with Vincent Enyeama, which eventually forced the goalkeeper to quit international football.
He said, “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.
“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.”
Mikel Obi also remarked about his competence as a manager, saying he was clueless as a Super Eagles coach.
Obi said, “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.
See Also: Nigeria won’t win AFCON 2023 — Ex-Eagles defender, George Abbey says