Stephen Keshi And The Poisoned Chalice!

It is dream job on paper, but a nightmare in reality. It has defied the tactics of some of the game's best tacticians. It has put a huge daint upon the Resumé of some of the game's best coaches. This is the dreaded terrain that Stephen Keshi has just stepped into by accepting the job to be the coach of the Nigerian Super Eagles. Some have called the job a pandora box, and rightly so. The task before Keshi is an enormous one. He will be under no illusion that this will be a bed of roses. He only needs to look at the short stint of his predecessor, Samson Siasia, to appreciate what awaits him. Only few months ago, Siasia was believed to be the messiah to lead our football to the ever elusive promised land. But, his inability to lead us to the 2012 Cup of Nations, the first time in 25 years, has cost him his job, rubbished his antecedents, and has made him a national ridicule. Such is the swiftness with which one could fall from stardom to dust in Nigeria. Even though the failure of the Super Eagles is not entirely Siasia's making, he beared the consequences as the manager and begs the question 'Is Hiring and Firing the way to go?' It has been suggested that part of Siasia's sins for which he was sack, was his astute conviction never to compromise standards. Whatever be the case, he is now history. The rebuilding process of the Super Eagles must commence now, and only time will tell if Stephen Keshi (a former victim of sack himself by Mali and Togo), has what it takes to succeed where his predecessors failed.