there is no way a coach who hides behind the bars will do better than a coach who comes close to his players for discussions.
in games, communications are very very important so out of communication coach will always end up like amodu.

but okoro was playing against high school kids in the under-17 tournament. that's an unfair comparison

@bawomolo,
if u can say this above, why then are u part of this unfair discussion?

semid4life no matter what mikel can't never ever be naija best midfilder, whether in current form or talent wise. imagine a fooreigner asking an like semid who is naija best pplayer the fool would say mikel, a player that have no goal or short on target. there is no way i would take mikel over okoro, okoro is the most skillful nigeria player since jj okocha even more skillful than osaze, if he can work on his football brain and stop being to selfish he is going places, but the bad thing about him is that he is already in his early 20s he should be called to eagles now not 5 years later when he has faded. so semid if you think this players

Solomon Okpako
. Abduljeleel Ajagun Gabriel Rueben
Olufemi Adefemi

are better than okoro thunder should strike your Joystick now

@12large,
he played the under 20 and u are saying he will go places? what type of places? arsenal, chelsea, madrid, barca? what is his original age and when is he going places?
the rating of players can never be sound with ur types. the players have targets and as soon as they get to their targets, we will know.
stanley okoro and stanley okeafor can never be comfortable playing for iwuanyawu as no quality player can remain in our local league.
we all know that football is not played here but in europe.

do you have to resort to personal attacks in defending your lord and savior mikel?

@bawomolo,
must u display ur frustrtaions and that of ur family in disciussing a guy that is not aware of ur existance? why is it that nothing constructive can be discussed here on nairaland outside comparing mikel to any living being?
we are we more interested in running ppl down here?
is it that ppl here are as useless as their thread topics or that they are as empty as their noise reflects?
visit other countries'forums and see what they do there and compare it with useless topics that are flooding in this forum.
most of u here have useless parents who sleep and wake up in the bars. most of u are this useless that ur parents will jump to any opportunity to exchange u even for a goat.
why do u come here with ur emptiness?
mikel is not a good player, he passes the ball backward and sideways, accepted but leave the boy alone, u will not leave him. at the end of this topic, we will see another idiot comparing mikel to oliver de coque or saddam hussien of iraq. just very silly topics flooding the whole forum.
if i may ask u mt speaker, do u know that mikel is the most popular person on this nairaland coursty of those who hate him.

@kgdavid,
u once told me that u wanted to be a footballer but ur father refused and forced u to continue with ur education.
i think at ur age, u are not capable of taking ur personal decissions so why taking other ppl's decissions?
why are u always talking about mikel?
why are u always comparing him to others? the guy is born to be far above u and ur generations.
can't u discuss anyother issue apart from mikel?
are u this destined to pull ppl down?
all the names u mentioned here are far better than u so let them be wether they are doing well or not.

i am happy for amodu who killed those things that kill ppl in me while he was the nigerian coach.
if not for amodu, i would have been on the danger list by now.
why must this man die for something that does not worth it.
am sorry for him and his family.

no bad news without the name of obasanjo.
he commissioned many uncompleted projects in different states including his two times commissioning of rivers state power plants.
obasanjo is the root of all evils between 1999 till date.
achike udenwa we all know was the first gov to endorse obasanjo's third term and was later made a minister under yar adua. efcc my foot.
the only criminal nigerians know is ibori or orji uzor kalu.

what a good news for the people of afghanistan.

Simple things like side passes and back passes right?

@dayokanu,
assuming we all accept ur position that haruna is better than mikel, I HOPE YOU ACCEPT THE FACT THAT MIKEL IS BETTER THAN ANYTHING, ANYBODY YOUR LINEAGE CAN PRODUCE BOTH NOW AND IN GENERATIONS TO COME?

the key word here is; WAS.
his ambition was to be ig but he joined politics along the line and ig is not for politicians.
he lost it.

Were you expecting the greatest debut in the history of the World cup from Haruna just because some of us rate him as potentially better than Mikel as a creative/attacking outlet? Haruna can and will improve in my opinion. I am not , unlike most folks , basing my opinion of Haruna on one or two games. I watched him at Monaco extensively and noted that he is better offensively than Mikel . Simple. That does not mean they must compete with each other. It simply means it would make sense for Mikel to be deployed for Nigeria similarly to how he is used for Chelsea . I don't get the obssession of several SE coaches to keep playing Mikel in a creative/offensive role when it would make more sense to try and support the emergence of a dedicated attack minded midfielder in the middle of the park.

Regardless of yesterdays game ,Nigeria should keep faith with Haruna . That Haruna was not spectacular against Argentina does not mean he is not a good player same as how he will not suddenly become Pele if he destroys Greece in the next game . He will get better but any savvy coach should keep faith with developing Haruna as an attacking outlet/lynchpin because he has the attributes to be more successful for Nigeria than Mikel in such a role .

Mikel should always play for the SE when fit but never as our main creative outlet . Haruna should be groomed for that role as he is far better offensively than Mikel IMO.

@gbawe,
now the tone is different. i love not only haruna but everyother player that has tried to that level and is still trying.
to be in a club like chelsea for 4 seasons can never be by mistake.
he is not used to big stages and we saw that affect him at the begining of the game yesterday.
because most of us here are ill-informed on soccer, that can play haruna in the place of mikel but great coaches like grant, mourinho, ancelloti, hiddink and scolari or even ferguson will not think so.
so u know who is in a better position to say who the better player is.

now that the match of yesterday has forced this thread topic to an untimely death, it is left for another jobless mumu to start another mikel comparism and i do hope this time is going to be with a musician.
there is a possibility one mumu will start such comparism as; mikel vs tuface idibia, who is better despite not been in the same trade.

if the deji is a yorubaman, he shld know the culture and tradition and accepting that position means accepting the terms and conditions hence i advise him to commit suicide without fear or favour.
far back in my secondary school days when we learn govt, we were mearnt to understand that suicide is the only option in such situations and i mentioned that here in another topic.
pls deji must learn to die for what he believed in.

if it is possible, i will ask for kun aguerro of atletico madrid or pato of milan but worst come to worst, let benyoun of liverpool.

before the start of the tournament, many ppl were complaining about the ball and one goalkeeper(though i have forgotten who) said we are going to see bad goals as in keepers making such blounders as we saw yesterday.

very very different from many views i see here. in the SE, i saw a more committed team. loosing 1-0 to the star studded argentine side is not that bad.
i saw the coach on the touch line dishing out orders a way of telling the players how umncomfortable he was unlike in the amodu era where he hides behind the bars.
all we need to do is to let the corrupt nff give this man a long contract and leave amodu to try his luck somewhere else.
yesterday, i saw signs of new things to come in our soccer.
we played well though some of our players had the stage tension especially at the initial stage of the game.
i expect a more composed side in our other games.

Lukman has shown why he is wayy better than Mikel Obi.

If Mikel were to be on the field today it would have been a disaster for us

@dayokanu,
there is every possibility that people told you how it went. i am not sure you watched the same game others did.
at the begining of the game, haruna suffered what i call stage tension as he could not handle the big stage. as the game progressed, he came into the game. his class was reduced with the experienced side.
like i said before the match, haruna is a good player working to get there.
if only haruna will reduce the styles and concentrate on the team.
did we see the kind of creativities most of us were rejoicing and jubilating over with the presence of haruna? if yes, how many goals did that produce for nigeria? if no, why?
my over-all rating for the team yesterday was excellent. they played with all commitments. if amodu had faced the argentine side yesterday, we wld have been 4 goals down in the first half.
we saw a coach who was uncomfortable with the result. we saw a coach who was worried. we saw a coach who went to the pitch side to pass instructions to his players and not a coach that will be hiding at the back of the bars.
we are improving, all we now is for the nff to give this kind of coach a long term contract that will give him time to build a team. that amodu i know is hanging arround for this man to finish the world cup for him(amodu) to come back for his birth right(national coach).

commitment among the players was excellent.
we saw our coach show his uncomfortable situation as soon as we went down and he showed up by the picth side instead of hiding behind the bars and peeping like a criminal.
if anyone looses to the argentine star studded side by 1-0, that one will never complain.
despite loosing, i am begining to have feelings for nigerian football again.
for haruna, he was great and will be better in the coming games as he gets used to big stages.
i saw a fan who wrote, MIKEL WE MISS U. i missed him with those long passes which we did not see today especially with the introduction of martins who runs to the long balls.
all the same, great game over-all.

some kind of quietness in da house. can somebody explain this pls.

I totally agree with you and I think that I have made it sufficiently clear that Haruna may be a good player for the SE while Mikel is already a good and established player for Nigeria.

Nonetheless , they are different players. We desperately need Haruna to be a good player for us because he is more of a missing piece to our football jigsaw than Mikel can be . Why do we think experienced SE's (and even the coach Lagerback) who have seen it all , like Osaze and Yakubu , are raving about this kid if , like the rest of us , they are not just immensely relieved that it seems as if Nigeria may have gained a midfielder who might be the attacking spark Mikel has failed to become ?

Yes Haruna is young and unproven but so was Messi. If the Argentinian went on to be the Worlds best player we can at least hope that Haruna , given his better attacking skillset compared to Mikel, can make the SE play effective attacking and winning football. As A Nigerian , I think Haruna is a better midfield prospect than Mikel because , in the end and even as every player is important , the most important player is the one you cannot win a game without. It has been a while since we had a match winning midfielder and game-changer and I think all Nigerians are aware of that hence the constant and desperate talk in the past of coaxing JJ Okocha out of retirement .

Not saying that Haruna will be anywhere near as good as JJ but he has more natural attributes to be a creative midfielder for us than Mikel has. I am glad Lagerback gave Haruna a chance instead of toe the path of previous Se coach who wanted to make Mikel an AM by all means.

@gbawe,
in the write up above, the key word is CAN indicating another probability. it is our dream to have another okocha or even someone who will be better and if it is haruna, glory be to God. but until then.
when did ppl starting missing okocha? at retirement i think? what were his achievements in our national jersey? no matter how good u are, u can't be good in nigeria and outside nigeria because we are very very devilish by nature. enemies of progress we are. let this much talked about haruna become what we are yieling for today, u will see this same group of ppl turning back to call him names.
u can look very good in this dry part of the world but who u are or what u are will be determined by those who sleep and wake up in the picth no natural politicians or forced kidnappers and high way robbers turn to soccer analysts that are parading themselves here on nairaland.
do u think haruna is not struggling to get to where mikel is in soccer?
my prayer to him is that he live up to expectations in this world cup so that great coaches will take him to big clubs where he can showcase his qualities and fans all over the world will have access to watching him.
soccer is an 11 man game and everyone must contribute to make things happen. no matter how great haruna is, he will not do it alone.
if u watched angola 2010, u will see many finished balls that fell for yakuba but he could not score so in such situations, haruna will cross the ball and score it himself.
mikel has gotten to the height where other footballers in nigeria are praying to be like him and that is exactly what i wish haruna and others who are trying their luck.
in today's football, every nigerian must tell u, attacking or creative midfielder, what about the other 10 players on the picth? maybe not important? my dear, soccer is made up of departments and everyone got to try to make it real.
if lukman is better than mikel, why is his face not in all these world cup star adverts?

if the dream was like 1 - 0, one will understand but now that it is 3 - 0, u better go back to sleep and reduce the goal-line for u to have a chance.

Why must some of you make out as if everything is war and "us against them" ? We are all Nigerians analysing our various players with a look at their strenghts and deficits . The French and the Brazilians do it also . If Haruna has the potentials to be better than Mikel then that is something for all Nigerians to celebrate because we have all seen , beyond doubt , that Mikel does not appear to have the natural talent to be the SE's main creative outlet.

Even Mikel , if he is highly proffessional and patriotic, will welcome the emergence of a player who can make us play better attacking football than he can. Will Makelele , in 1998 , have egotistically wanted two of himself in a France midfield or will he feel France eventually won the World cup because he had a creative maestro , in the form of Zidane, complementing his own work ? Big ego , disunity and hero worship of certain untouchable individuals is always a problem for Nigeria. How many players are older than Messi in the Argentinian team yet defer to his supreme talent ? It is the same for Wayne Rooney . He is one of England's youngest players yet he is the talent all of England is most reliant on !!!!

It is only in Nigeria you will hear that Mikel is superior because of age, experience and the fact that he plays for a bigger team than Haruna when we should be looking at the big picture in seeing the huge deficiency in our national game that Haruna might be able to address!!!

No Nigerian can claim to be happy with the Nigerian team of the past few years. We were known for flair , panache and creativity in the past . Now we are just a dull, pedestrian , inneffective and low-scoring team that is terribly boring to watch!!!

Who does not want to see a change in our current playing style with a badly needed injection of creativity and cutting edge football in the middle of the park?

Abeg we should start thinking of what is best for Nigeria instead of always look at national issues from a viewpoint of defending our heroes, ethnic group or stance.

@Gbawe,
the keys words in ur statements are; if and will and they both relate to probability and future possibility.
we are all praying that nigeria get great players who will break records. kanu nwankwo has records on his decorations of which results are proving mikel to be running after those results. players play to win trophies and that is exactly what kanu did and mikel is doing.
let us pray that haruna start his own history but for now, he is yet to make a move.
the most funny thing about nigeria and nigerians is that they see white where others see black. who in the world of soccer has recognition for haruna at the moment?
if nigerians are saying u are good, it means u are not good. i will urge haruna to over-look nigerians and work himself out to limelight where great soccer men will recognise him.
if he based his accessments on the likes of 12large and co, he will end up been a nobody in football.
haruna has talents and i recognise that but he is yet to prove that to the world soccer men.
let us wait until a great coach finds him worthy of playing in a big club. let us wait till he makes himself available in the world market of soccer where talents meet talents. let us wait until that day he will have the guts to compete with established stars like mikel did when he said, I WANT TO PLAY IN CHELSEA not minding the world class stars on parade.
if and will can never be used as judgement terms rather we must point to achievements.
on the arrieval of mikel at chelsea, it was about red cards and the past two seasons has seen non for him so that is a great acheivement for the sensitive role he plays.
now every body is complaining about goal scoring,. what did mikel do in egypt and how many of our strikers scored more goals than mikel in egypt 2006?
let us not be as dumb as 12large and his group.
both players are nigerians, one has landed while the other is still trying to meet up.
lukman haruna can never accept monaco as his destination(god forbid). he must be working to get into world class clubs like chelsea where mikel plays, arsenal were wonder kids him him plays, man u where big guys plays, real madrid where established guys display, barca where style is the fashion etc but as long as he remains in monaco, he will continue greeting mikel with two hands.

for south africa vs mexico, tshabalala but for france vs uruguay, no man of the match. what i saw in that game was woman of the match.

mikel is the most popular person on nairaland.
everybody wants to talk about mikel and practically everybody has been compared to mikel.
mikel is a very big boy.
i know haruna is dreaming to be like mikel.

Isn't Mikel suppose to be better than Fabregas, Yaya Toure, Keita & Song had it been he had improved since 2005?

I've never heard any big club struggling to get him recently. 2 goals in 4 season and Vermalean that has no business going forward scored 7 goals in a season Shocked

Gone were the days we used to think he is our new Okocha and I don't think he can make England 50-man squad if he's an English player,

He's the most unimproved player I've ever seen

@purestboy,
after scoring 7 goals in a season, what did he win at the end of the day? is football all about the team or about the individual? chelsea is such a club that players are restricted to certain duties and if u are a soccer follower, u will know that chelsea break a lot of histories this just concluded season including highest goal scored in a season by a coach hence i tell u chelsea did not lack goal scorers.
how many strikers are in arsenal and how many goals did they score? the achievements of a defender is never determined by how many goals he scored rather how many that were scored against him and that is why your vermalean can never win best defender because his home is not protected while he goes for goals.
it is good that nigerians are not praising mikel because we are too slow in reasoning and very very retarded as a people to know the difference between good and bad. no wonder no nigerian is a coach and no nigerian is a referee. we lack good sense of judgement.
ask haruna tomorrow and he will tell u his dream is to be like mikel.
can haruna wear chelsea jersey talkless of benching ballack the german captain?
where can haruna play in english league.
haruna has 10 yrs of steady progress to get to where mikel is.
at the moment, only one nigerian player can play in chelsea and his name is mikel.
chelsea is a star studded player team hence playing in chelsea takes another dimension in ppl's soccer life.
with all haruna's goodness, how much is he earning at the end of the day? why is his face not being used in all big adverts concerning this world cup and other big boys adverts?
haruna is a good player but his main problem is that bhe forgets himself at the middle of the game. he tries to be over stylish that on two differnt occassion during the under 20 world cup, he lost the ball to our oponents and the end product was goals against nigeria.
how many clubs will u mention before u mention monaco in the european clubs and how many will u mention before u mention chelsea.
my prayer is that haruna grow up to be like mikel that plays in a big club and earn better money and at the end of it all win trophies.

finally, mikel is the most popular nigerian and haruna is not and u can check this up on this forum by the number of topics on mikel's name and that of haruna.
from the way things are going on with this mikel's comparisms, soon, we are going to compare mikel with tuface idibia or mikel with pete edochie.

anyways, that is always the case with a super star.
mikel don dey more popular than our president.

end time time! end time!! end time!!!.
men sleeping with their daughters and daughters inlaw.

chidicris mikel was not in that advert except you use 419 and add him to it

@12large,
believe me mikel is there just that those who no know him no go know. he is that big boy that ended up drinking the pepsi for which these other stars were struggling for.
anyways, it all depends on the kind of tv set u use.
some of us here argue wrongly because of what they get from the 14 inches black and white tv they use.
brother upgrade ur systems and u will begin to see what we see.
another news for u brother, mikel is thinking of contexting for the aso rock highest position come 2023 by then according to his financial mangers, he will be very rich that he can do anything with money. pls am only leaking a secret for u so don't tell anybody as this is between u and i.
the freshiest of all news is that mikel is planing to buy a local league club side here in nigeria. na waa, this boy dey power.

let ur hands be clean as u claim.
somebody was behind the death of this man and somebody is manupulating the nigerian police.
for those who are behind this show of shame, my praayer is that the death of this man will better than ur death.
it is a shameful thing that a serving attorney general of the federation was killed without trace and this goes a long way in showing how safe an ordinary man is in nigeria.

very very correct my brother.
the reason behind this changes is personal and financial interests.
this is the major avenue through which the loot the country.
they have refused to institutionalize anything.
efcc after ribadu started afresh because of lack of propare hand-over and records.
obasanjo handing over to yar adua shld not have been seen as a change of power since they are of the same party but what did we get? a totally different programme. as if that is not enough, under the same party, the same govt, jonathan cld not continue where his boss stopped rather he started a new govt wwith some funny ideas and we all know that 8 yrs is never enough in nigeria what more 1 yr?
these policies are only effective on the pages of our news papers and other media houses.
if only they will use the N10b mapped out for the celebration of independence on hiring white ppl to come here teach them about policies and implimentations, nigeria will be a great nation but will nigeria be able to swallow her pride and learn what they don't know?

True, I agree! When Ojukwu slept with his best friend's daughter, a girl whom he attended her christening when he was 43 years old and whom he was made her "god-father", and ended up marrying her, I expected him to be banished too. . . . .

ok, u are talking about marriade when thomas okoya is still marrying or do u think abiola if he is still alive wld not gone into the guiness book of record in his marrying abilities?
wait till obasanjo dies and u will see how many wives he has. you guys can marry even while sleeping.
who is even sure abiola is not still marrying overthere.
we were thought in school that in this kind of circumstances, the council of elders will advise this deji to commit suicide so am surprised.

this is what i expected to happen to obasanjo who behaves like a madman.
when he slept with his daughter inlaw, he was suposed to be banished.

how many players of ur wenger are in the team?

i was just watching the pepsi advert in which mikel, lampard, drogba and theiry henry stared in.
na waa, this mikel don hammer oooooooooooooooo.
what surprised me in that advert was that mikel was even acting the bigger boy.
wow! the hand of God is upon that boy.
life is not by labour but by favour.
many of us here can pass the ball forward and score up to 10 goals in every match yet they are no where but God favours this one wey dey pass ball backward and sideways who has managed only two(2) goals in four seasons at chelsea.
from the way things are going, soon, we will be seeing obama and mikel go for dinner.