Oliseh was one of the best players in his days, but Mikel feels he was a terrible coach
Chelsea legend Mikel Obi has stated that former Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh was one of the worst coaches he worked with during his career, Soccernet.ng reports.
Oliseh was one of the greatest players to grace the pitch for Nigeria. After retiring in 2006, he went into management. The former Juventus star was employed as Super Eagles coach in 2016.
However, he did not last on the job, as he was sacked just months into his stay. Oliseh’s reign as Super Eagles coach came with a lot of controversy, as he had an altercation with Vincent Enyeama, who retired unceremoniously.
“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,” Mikel said on his ObiOne podcast.
“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 also failed to churn out consistent results and was constantly at loggerheads with the Nigeria Football Federation. Mikel has shed more light on Oliseh’s stay as Nigeria’s coach, and he feels the 49-year-old was the worst he ever worked with.
“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 absolutely had no clue of what he was doing,” Mikel said on the ObiOne podcast.
“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 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.”
After the Super Eagles job, Oliseh coached Dutch side Fortuna Sittard and German fifth-tier side SV Straelen. He left both jobs under controversial circumstances and has not gotten a new club since 2022.
This post was last modified on January 12, 2024 2:58 pm
KRC Genk forward Tolu Arokodare has blamed disgruntled gamblers for the barrage of online abuse… Read More
English Premier League club Manchester United have reached out to Victor Osimhen's representatives over a… Read More
Portuguese club Boavista have slapped a hefty ₦9.6 billion price-tag on Super Eagles defender Bruno… Read More
View Comments
Olise has attitudinal problems and so arrogant to accept that. You may be good in your field but if your attitude is bad, you can't go far. See the numbers of club he has coached after then, what is his success factor? Zero. Hope they will not drag him back to the team again to come and bury it.
I could remember vividly how he rudely had altercation with senior player (Samson Siasia) to the level of ready to go on physical combat in Holland prior to USA 94World Cup.
Olishe had a successful career with SE but lack discipline as a player and Coach.
You are right. I could recall that Samson Siasia even gave him a dirty slap on the face for his arrogancy.
Oliseh Knows nothing about how to use words. Very unwise man and a terrible ambassador of anything.
me I feel oliseh has some mental problems or unresolved trauma from what I have learned about him. he seems to be very temperamental and quick to anger. I think he should seek help. it is unfortunate as I feel he may have been a better player or better coach had he dealt with his demons. hands down my Nigeria's favorite player of all time but we have to be honest, he needs therapy. hopefully he has learned and cooled down or is working on himself. it is never too late. we are all humans.
Sir u have well said. It is really a terrible one. mr. Oliseh , no doubt for me he was the engine room of SE back then, making Okocha's job easy. I kept asking where is oliseh , going into the 2002 world cup, I became downcast knowing the team would not go far. I feel his attitude chased him from the team, like he bear it any more. Therefore had to runaway from the team. This same issue chased me out of my team.
Sunday Oliseh is everything a football Manager should never be. So temperamental, so arrogant, so disrespectful, so uncouth and rude, so jealous of equally successful mates and juniors, so belligerent, so garrulous an no wonder as a player, he never left any club peacefully. There must be a story of violent use of his body or tongue leading to his dismissal.
As a manager, so laughable the way his emotions easily out-manouevered him, always leading to his dismissal. The likes of Siasia, late Keshi, Eguavoen, Ugbade, Amokachi, Amuneke etc have been coaches in Nigeria and delivered good, if not excellent results. As for Oliseh, he can't even manage primary school team without beating them up. Then he would accuse his employers of using juju on him. In fact, that guy na pikin.
The worst manager indeed.
As far as I'm concerned, and as Mikel said, Olise remains the worst thing ever to happen the the Nigerian Senior National Male Team, the Supper Eagles, and his period in the team is Manager is better expunged from the annals of our football history and buried.
olise is just a jealous and arrogant fellow. I was wondering what befell the FA of Nigerian when they employed him and also supported him against our loyal Enyama. He is more than terrible. He has some spiritual problems from his stomach. So, it cannot be destroyed. I believe he equally cause me the best player of the year title as a result of his wicked and jealous mindset and act.
great player but terrible manager. another error from pinnick who employed him. he called him Africa guardiola. though he made me happy when he played for eagles but he buried all that when he allowed Africa's best goal keeper ever to leave eagles the way he did. maybe never see an oliseh again as eagles coach.
Sunday Oliseh is a wizard, a highly demon possessed, rugged footballer, now suffering affliction of the devil in that he displays a zombie-like character without knowing actually how he can get out of such idiotic behavior.
He is suffering in silence because his life is overwhelmed by nightmarish dreams, then after fear, failure, disappointment and set back becomes the order of the day in his life, therefore to him it’s just a strong man’s style, but unknown to him that it was an evil spirits at work in his life.
Mikel Obi was right on his assertions about Oliseh.
In fact anything about Sunday Oliseh turns someone's belly, he lacked respect to others, filled with arrogance, so callous, temperamental poor, poor language usage, and finally filled with pride and insulting. I think people who asked him to go into management really disliked him a lot if there be anyone who advice him to follow such a part, he simply what it's takes to manage a team talk more of managing a super Eagles as it's manager. I think the guy needed a therapist to find what is really wrong with his brain , that saddest thing about him is that he will hardly go anywhere without his arrogance and foolish poor mentality. I just believe that this current NFF president is not the kind of man that will look at his direction on employment of a new manager of super Eagles.
Oliseh is a mistake that shouldn't have happened in the first place if only the NFF had lived up to their responsibility. Just as he formed a cabal in his playing days. He was afraid of reaping what he had sown. Because of his stupidity we lost the best goal keeper from the national team unceremoniously. What a jerk!