Sunday Oliseh has insisted that he will only select the best players for Nigeria.
The new Super Eagles boss, was speaking via YouTube, where he sought to clarify his comments, on calling up footballers who do not play in the first division of major leagues around the world.
In a video blog on his website titled “Periodic update from the horse’s mouth on the Super Eagles’ evolution”, Oliseh insisted that playing in top leagues, exposes the players to the best training and competition.
“At the moment there has been a lot of talk as regards the fact that we have decided that first division players are the players that we found eligible to serve our country,” he said.
“We feel the best has to play for us and the best in any country play in the first division.
“Of course there could be some exceptions, we have players who are excellent in the second division but the basis of our decision is this: the best players in the first division are used to a certain level, tempo and competition standard because that is what the competition entails.
“And for that reason, we need the best that are used to playing at this tempo to serve and play for Nigeria.”
Oliseh, however, made exceptions for players, who have done well with the youth teams as well as regular Super Eagles players, whose teams may been relegated.
“A player who has excelled for Nigeria at top level, who has won titles for Nigeria and who we feel is at the top of his [career], if in the future due to no fault of his, his team falls down to the second level and his club refuses to sell him, keeping the player tied down, these are players that we have to look upon and decide the shape they are in and eventually may make exceptions to,” he continued.
“But at the moment, we stand firm because we feel that the best has to play for Nigeria.”
The former national team skipper, also spoke about restructuring the team, ahead of their second game of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series in September.
“At the moment we are assembling a team, in fact we are trying to start from scratch and getting players that we feel are the best for the style we want to play,” the 40-year-old said.
“We have split our search into two phases: the phase of the home-based and the phase of the foreign-based ones.
“At the moment we have visited some players in their clubs, even watched them play and we have made contact with several of the potential players that we hope to assemble as we play our first qualifier versus Tanzania.
“We hope to start training in mid-August and then round it up before traveling to play Tanzania,” he concluded.
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