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Former Super Eagles boss Sunday Oliseh emptied the clip on John Obi Mikel, a few weeks after the ex-Chelsea man called him the worst coach he ever played for.
Super Eagles legend Sunday Oliseh has fired back at John Obi Mikel after the former Chelsea man tagged him as the worst coach he ever played under.
What happened
Oliseh was the Nigerian national team coach between 2015 and 2016, and he infamously fell out with a few senior players in the team, one of whom was Mikel.
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The experience of that relatively brief stint seemingly did not part from Mikel, and recently, in his ObiOne podcast, he reminisced on that period. Mikel narrated on the show and tagged the former Ajax midfielder as the worst coach he ever experienced.
“He (Oliseh) had absolutely no clue of how a manager is,” Mikel said on his pod. “He was a fantastic guy in his playing days, but he was a terrible coach. He absolutely had no clue of 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. He was easily the worst manager I played under.”
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Oliseh’s response
Excerpts from Mikel's quotes were read out to Oliseh in his interview on ELEGBETE TV, and he was offered the opportunity to defend himself. Oliseh accused Mikel of being petulant and struggling with his transition into life after being a footballer.
“To be honest with you, I think the kid needs some help,” Oliseh responded. “Because I'm not going to go and chastise now, but I think the boy needs some help.”
With Mikel having attacked his coaching credentials, Oliseh, who looked to be seated in his study for the interview, brought an award from the background to the fore and lifted it to the camera.
It came from his time as manager of Fortuna Sittard in the Jupiler Pro League, when he was given the best coach award for the first period of the season.
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Oliseh went on to state that he would not degrade himself by getting into a debate with Mikel over his nous as a manager, as he believes his works speak for themselves.
“I would like to help the boy,” Oliseh continued. “You cannot become a legend with your mouth. You cannot achieve what you were unable to achieve on the pitch of play as a footballer; you cannot achieve it outside the pitch with talking and with podcast.
Oliseh then narrated the story of a Chelsea fan friend who shared a clip from Mikel's viral podcast episode, in which he revealed the underbelly of life as a footballer in Africa, navigating familial entitlement, and community-wide pressure for financial support.
Oliseh berated Mikel for telling such a story on a platform as global the FiveUk show has become. “Never in the history of Nigeria has one player ever gone on a foreign podcast and totally humiliate his family by calling them beggars, problems and everything.”
“When I saw it, I was shocked, and that is why I am saying this disrespect for family and people that are older than you has to stop.”
Oliseh told another story, one which he said he had never shared. He revealed that Olympic gold medalist Dosu Joseph once fed and housed Mikel before the 37-year-old’s palm kernels were cracked by the gods, so to say. According to Oliseh, Mikel never looked back, even after an accident that handicapped Dosu. He said the ex-Chelsea star has never lent a helping hand to his former benefactor.
“The problem I had with Mikel was simply this: I did not find him at the time I coached him as a player; I didn't find him good enough to play that position.”
“I felt we had even a home base player that was better. And when we played a World Cup qualifier against Swaziland, because Obi Mikel played badly against them [in the first leg], three days later, when we came back to Port Harcourt to play, I played a home base player, Paul Onobi, in his stead. Paul Onobi was voted as the best player on the pitch by the opposing coach, and we killed them 2-0.
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“The point is, I hold no grudge against Obi-Mikel; in fact, I am the one telling you he needs help. Because when you are starting out like him, I get it, Matt. When people stop football, some players are lost; they don't know what to do next.
“You've played football; you've spent all your life as a footballer. Sometimes they are so arrogant they don't even greet people; they don't talk to people. Now you finish you realise you need people, after all, you have to try to get back into the system. I know that is what he is going through right now.”
Oliseh implored Mikel to educate himself and stop chasing controversies and insulting people on his podcast. He advised Mikel to warm himself up to people to facilitate acquiring guests for the show; he also wants him to “fill his brain with knowledge.”
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