The super eagles gaffer came out yesterday to shed more light on the sad development, saying his character is being assassinated with regards news making the rounds that he insulted the ex captain's late mom.
Enyeama ditched the Super Eagles in Belgium, quitting his international career, following a disagreement between him and the coach.
Among other things, Enyeama alleged that the coach ordered security men to throw him out of the team’s camp, adding that he was stripped. But Oliseh told www.footballlive.ng yesterday that Enyeama lied against him just to tarnish his image.
“I am deeply saddened, troubled and profoundly hurt by the assassination of my person as Vincent Enyeama has done over the past two days,” Oliseh said. “Me insulting his mother? These allegations are unheard of.
”When I was appointed chief coach of the Super Eagles, 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 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.
“Two 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 would 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.
“We started camp on Monday, and to my greatest surprise, Mikel Obi and Ighalo came in on Sunday night. We had invited four 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, the Nigerian Ambassador to Belgium came in to talk with the team because our delegation had not been given visas to come. Six players were stuck in Nigeria over the hitch and two of them were goalkeepers. And somebody had to act in the absence of the captain, which Ahmed Musa had been doing well prior to matches against Tanzania and Niger.
“I remember that when the Ambassador wrapped up, I told Musa, as the captain, to introduce the team as a way to appreciate the support. The boys did not train well that afternoon, and later at dinner, I told them I was not happy and demanded more from them. Only for Vincent to stand up insisting on saying something, but I told him to see me about it later.
“He refused and as side talks persisted, I called him to order, but 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, Ahmed Musa and Mikel Obi, came in later to plead 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,” Oliseh stated.
Speaking further, the coach said: “Most people are not aware of this, but I’ll tell you 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 Dele Alampasu because we had only two 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 had 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,” Oliseh added.
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