Situation normal for Nigeria

In United States military language there is a code for it, and it goes like this SNAFU. SNAFU means situation normal all f***ed up and exists when there is a period of organised chaos. Sounds like Nigerian football at the best of times because that is what we have when Nigeria is at its best. Right now things are far from being at their best, regardless of result against Paraguay.

I really wanted to reserve any judgements until I'd seen the players interacting with the new regime of Adeboye Onigbinde and heard what he had to say. With a World Cup only two months away even getting to the second round out of a tough first group would be a monumental achievement than was first thought.

Onigbinde doesn't dispute the savageness of his surgery on the squad he inherited and the difficulty of its timing. "I agree with you and appreciate that it is far from ideal to make such changes. When it becomes inevitable what can you do? We thought it would be disastrous to take that team to the World Cup."

"I have tried to avoid questions of how many players in Mali will be at the World Cup. There are 18 of those players in the 54 that I have under consideration and the final number depends on the way they play in the preparation games."

This is the first problem. I can't think of any country ever going to a World Cup finals with the door so wide open this close to the finals. The Eagles should be in a situation where they know at least 17 of the players in the squad. If he didn't know his best team, well that would be understandable but not even the bulk of his squad? Unless this is to be taken as a bit of kidology it is very scary.

On the plus side Onigbinde will bring an air of discipline to the Eagles that was sorely lacking in Mali when the players hotel had more than a whiff of a declining Roman Empire about it.

The evidence so far is that the schoolteacher in him might take discipline too far for some and others will fail to respond at all to the sergeant-major approach. Onigbinde was eager to answer my questions to Jay-Jay Okocha at a recent press conference. At the same conference a lot of what Onigbinde had to say was based on a parent-child relationship or a teacher-child relationship.

He also called into question the professionalism of his players, a point that Okocha took particular umbrage with, as indeed would any professional player. Perhaps that is why Celestine Babayaro turned his back on him in training.

Onigbinde says that right now it's a level playing field. I'd say that for him, the players and Nigeria it's going to be uphill all the way.

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