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.
