Don’t expect much from Keshi – Babayaro

Emmanuel Babayaro

As Nigerians continue to react to the return of Stephen Keshi as the Chief Coach of the Super Eagles, former international, Emmanuel Babayaro has warned Nigerians not to expect much from the coach.

Babayaro who has been critical of the former captain of the national team said his position which is not personal is based on the fact that the coach can only give what he has. Continue..

He however said the only thing that can count differently is if Keshi has learnt from the mistakes he made in his first stanza.

“In terms of expectations I want to tell you that I am not necessarily expecting anything new from Keshi because at the end of the day it is still Keshi, he is not going to give us what he does not have. We want to believe that when he was away he may have probably learnt one or two lessons especially in terms of humility and understanding. I always say that nobody can claim to know it all, you need to humble yourself sometimes and listen to other peoples opinion, I think in that particular aspect I want to hope and believe he must have learnt some lessons.

“Technically speaking, it is still the same, it is still the same Keshi and with all due respect it still means we are not going to play the best of football, absolutely not.

“Talking about winning, if we win, it is basically the usual thing; our individual talents because we are Nigeria and in my opinion after Brazil in the world it is Nigeria.”

According to him, “the focus now should be on grassroots and the age grade competitions. Nigerians always have their hearts in their mouths each time the country is playing.”

On the likely fate of the National U-20 team at the forthcoming World Youth Championship (WYC) in New Zealand, Babayaro said he expects that the Coach Manu Garba tutored side will at least progress to the semi finals of the tournament.