By John Egbokhan
Former Nigerian goalkeeper Peter Rufai has said that he was not surprised with the failure of the Eagles to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of |Nations, to be jointly hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Speaking to reporters yesterday at the National Stadium, Lagos, Rufai, a great keeper of his time, said that the Eagles were doomed to fail from the onset because they did not have a specific playing pattern.

“I am surprised that people have been lamenting over our failure to qualify for the Nations Cup. For me, it did not come as a big surprise because the Eagles did not have a particular pattern. Since we are trying to build a new team for the 2014 World Cup, the job of qualifying becomes more tedious if the various players being integrated into the system do not have a pattern to follow.

“That is why most of the players who played against Guinea did not know what to do. They were simply lost in the heat of the Abuja sun because we do not have a pattern. If we had a pattern, all our players will fit into the plan and the results would be there for all to see”, added Rufai, who said that sacking Samson Siasia was not going to stop the rot in the Eagles.

“If you sack Siasia, what is the guarantee that the person who replaces him would take us out of this mess. As I said before, the problem is not the coaches themselves but the failure of the system to improve the knowledge of the coaches.

“Siasia should stay but the NFF must send him to refresher courses abroad. It is so shameful that that our coaches do not even know what is expected of them. Our coaches are short of information, which is the key to achieving results on the field”, added Rufai.