Enyeama lied, I never insulted his mother – Oliseh

Vincent Enyeama ditched the Super Eagles in Belgium; calling time on his
international career, but not without some controversy. He alleged the head
coach Sunday Oliseh insulted his late mother, had security throw him out of
the camp and stripped him. In an exclusive interview with
www.footballlive.ng Sunday Oliseh debunked the claims insisting the 33-
year-old defamed.
The full excerpt of the interview:
I am deeply saddened, troubled and profoundly hurt by the assassination of
my person as Vincent Enyeama has done over the past two days on social
about me insulting his mother, these allegations are unheard of.
When I was
appointed the chief
coach of the Super
Eagles of Nigeria, I
drove to Lille to
see Vincent, took
him to lunch and
discussed how we
wanted to move
forward with him
as my captain. I
shared my
philosophy with
him and he made
a statement I
didn’t like, he said
he was going to retire in a year or two and I told him I wouldn’t hear of it
as he was the captain of the team because we were thinking of taking the
team to the 2017 AFCON and 2018 World Cup; but we can’t build a team
with you as captain if you are retiring in 2017.
2 weeks ago before the camp started he told us about his mother’s burial
but I couldn’t go and there was an arrangement with the President who
assured me he’d be there on behalf of the NFF and team. But he started
talking about retirement so at that moment I felt we needed someone else
as captain; it had nothing to do with hurting anybody.
I don’t know Vincent personally, I’ve only been named coach and in fact
we’ve seen only once. He’s served Nigeria very well and as Captain, I was
also captain and I know how difficult that job is.
We started camp on Monday, to my greatest surprise Mikel Obi and Ighalo
camp in on Sunday night. We had invited 4 goalkeepers and he told us he
had to bury his mother. So, Obviously he couldn’t report to camp early until
Tuesday, just about the time we were rounding up; he drove into training
ground.
Prior to his coming in, we had the Nigeria ambassador to Belgium come in
to talk with the team because our delegation had not been given visas to
come in, 6 players were stuck in Nigeria over the hitch; 2 of them were
goalies. And somebody had to act in the absence of the Captain which
Musa had been doing well prior to the Tanzania and Niger games. And I
remember, when the Ambassador wrapped up I told Musa; as the captain,
to introduce the team as a way to appreciate the support.
But
the
boys did not train well that afternoon, the ball playing was good but our
objectiveness on the ball was not up to my liking so later at dinner I called
the team and told them I was not happy and demanded more from them.
Only for Vincent to stand up insisting on saying somethings but I told him
to see me about it later. He refused and as side talks persisted I called him
to order, he started raising his voice, I told him we couldn’t have two
coaches in the team and that he had to retire to his room. His colleagues
got up and escorted him out of the hall. Two of his colleagues came in later
to see me; the Captain Ahmed Musa and Mikel Obi, pleaded on his behalf
and we left it there. Only for issues to start popping up on social media
alleging we insulted him and his late mother.
Most people are not aware of this but I’ll tell you now that when we went to
play in Tanzania I personally asked for the team to wear the black band in
honor of his mother and for us to observe a minute’s silence , we asked and
we went through the channel of Dayo Enebi, but they said we should have
made the demand earlier, does this sound like a man who wants to
humiliate his captain?
What happened after wards, was alarming. We had only two goalkeepers, 15
players and we were playing a friendly game so we had to call in players
who did not need visas to come into Belgium as quick as possible to make
up numbers. We now had to call in Alampasu because we had only 2
goalkeepers; we were already making a case with Alloy to get ready if
anything happened. We called Efe Ambrose and Madu in, working like we
were a fire brigade.
I did not even have time to reply social media chats because we had to
work.
However on the match day, Vincent did not come to lunch, I was confused
because I thought we’d put all of the previous night’s issues behind us. I
called him and asked why he wasn’t in for lunch and he said he was
returning to his club. He said because I invited Alampasu he was leaving.
Alloy Agu is my witness, God is my witness.