BY JUDITH NWABIA, WITH AGENCY REPORT
FORMER Super Eagles assistant coach, Daniel Amokachi has blamed Nigeria’s failure to qualify for next year’s African Cup of Nations (Gabon 2017) on Super Eagles players.
Nigeria it would be recalled was denied a place in the next edition of the biennial Africa football showpiece after tumbling to Egypt in Alexandria last month.
Amokachi while ruing Eagles ouster said the Nigerian foreign legion failed to adjust their mentality when on international duty for the country.
The youthful tactician who now manages JS Hercules in the Finnish second division, said Eagles would however bounce back to international reckoning with hard work declaring that “there is a lot of work to be done.”
“The players when they return to play in Africa on international duty forget to switch [mentally],” Amokachi told Fifa.com.
Continuing the coach said: “It’s something that we kind of struggle with – not only as Nigerians, but as Africans.
“You play in Europe and everything you get is professional from A-Z and then when you come to Africa, the likes of transportation and accommodation can seem a distraction.
“The players forget to switch to being an African when they come back and that always makes them perform less than what they do at club level. I’m sure that has contributed to Nigeria not making it to back-to-back championships.
“Not qualifying for the tournament is not good enough for a country like Nigeria, but that’s football. It makes you sit up and say: ‘We have a lot of work that needs to be done,” he concluded.
