Super Eagles’ captain, John Obi Mikel, has confessed that the Russia 2019 World Cup bound team is far disciplined than the immediate past team to the Mundial.
Mikel said: “I have been in the national team since 2005 and I haven’t seen this discipline before.
“It is meetings, being on time, the training, but in 2014, the team was a disaster.
“There were a lot of problems in the camp, which a lot of people didn’t see, the media didn’t see.
“We kind of hid it under the table.
“The relationships between the players were not good and there was no discipline.
“There was no good feeling, no good vibe.
“It almost got to people being pinned up against dressing-room walls, although not quite.
“It was confrontation and arguments.
“Players wanted to do their own thing and they didn’t think about the team.
“Sometimes a player has the hump because he knows he is not going to make the team and, before in the national team, he just strolls around.
“Now, you have to train properly.
“If you don’t, you are leaving the camp.
“The coach has changed the whole mentality.”
The Tianjin Teda of China skipper however commended the national team manager Gernot Rohr for bringing sanity into the team.
Mikel said: “The coach and myself, as captain, have tried to make these young players realise that we are a team, not individuals.
“If you don’t want to play together, you are welcome to leave. It’s amazing now to go to camp.
“You can feel the good feelings.”