DON’T COMPARE ME WITH ZAMBIA’S COACH – KESHI

“No, I'm Stephen Keshi, I'm no Herve Renard,” began Keshi in an interview with SuperSport.com yesterday. “Zambia's achievement is big and I must say it comes on the back of a lot of planning and hard work by that country as well as patience from their fans.

“That (Zambian) team has been together for about three to four years. We are in the process of building a new team in Nigeria and it will be out of place to start comparing myself or this team to Zambia or her coach.

Keshi, 50, also pointed out that Nigeria had a penchant for producing talents which has led to having a huge base of players in Europe and other parts of the world.

He added that the Zambians, unlike Nigeria, relied on their best men on the continent to win their first African title against all odds. “For Nigeria, it's a different ball game because you have a large pool of players to pick from within and outside of the country. The 1994 team, which I was part of, became a hit because it was built over a period of four to five years. Honestly, we can no longer succeed through shortcuts, as we need a long-term plan to build a formidable team for this nation.

“When you compare the number of Nigerian players and those of Zambia abroad you will realise the huge disparity between both. Zambia decided to stick to a plan by bringing together their best players on the continent and it paid off in the long run.

“Seriously if we need to achieve something as a team and a nation we will have to approach it on the long-term and definitely it will pay off. Look at the Ivoriens and the Ghanaians, they are regarded as the best on the continent before Zambia's achievement because they built over a period of time and their fans showed a lot of patience during those periods,” he said.

But the former Mali and Togo manager rounded off that the results of his team's friendly matches should not be used as yardsticks to judge the side.

“No team will go into a match, be it a friendly or competitive match, with the intention to lose. At the same time, it is called friendly matches because we want to use them to prepare the team in this process of building and at the same time look at as many players at our disposal as possible,” Keshi said to SuperSport.com.

Nigeria face Liberia in an international friendly on Wednesday at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia with a team made up of players from the country's top flight.

It will be Keshi's third international friendly since he took charge of the Super Eagles as head coach last year.

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