Bora Milutinovic, Super Eagles coach from 1997 to 1998, including at the 1998 FIFA World Cup France

I’m not really surprised to have seen this team fail as I know the problems they tend to encounter well. Nigeria is a country that’s overflowing with talent, but there’s an impatience there. They had a good African Cup of Nations campaign in Angola, where they finished third, but in spite of that they decided to change coach. Personally, I thought Shaibu Amodu had done a very good job. I have a lot of respect for Lars Lagerback, but he didn’t have enough time to get his message over to the players. It’s very difficult to build a competitive team in such a short space of time, as the players have to quickly take on board a new philosophy and new working methods. On an individual level, Vincent Enyeama proved that he’s a great goalkeeper and the generation of players who contested the 2008 Olympics also impressed: namely Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi, Victor Obinna, Peter Odemwingie and Sani Kaita. They showed that Nigeria is brimming with talent.