- Having Europe best players is now a course in disguise

Ever wonder why the west African region of Africa a region which many describe as the power house of African Football where 80% of the High profile players in Africa come from. Yet the last time a country from west Africa won the Nations cup was 16 years ago when Nigeria won it in 1994. Ever since neither of Senegal ( with their failed golden generation) Ghana, Ivory Coast, or Nigeria have lifted Afcon inspite of producing some of the best players in the world.

Ever wondered why the nations cup in recent times have been dominated by countries with strong domestic league where 80% of the team are home based? South Africa in 1996, Egypt in 1998, Tunisia in 2004, Eygpt in 2006 and again in 2008.
Do you see a trend. With the exception of Cameroon every country that have won the nations cup in the last 16 years are countries with strong domestic leagues where 80% of national team players come from the domestic league. The big* countries with 95%-100% Europe based players have all fumbled and wumbled (tm).

The problem is simple to understand. Football is a team sport and it require that players most have played together for a long period of them. The players know each other, off the pitch there still maintain a close friendship which is always important for team spirit and cordination. The advantage you get with this setup is that your national team players are easier to assemble and train for longer period of times without any limitations.

Compare to countries where over 95% of players play abroad were its not always easy to get clubs to release players even for major Tournaments the required 2 weeks rules which require clubs to release a player before every major Tourney is never obeyed and players arriving 3-2 days to a championship is now the norm. In such a sinerio what you have are 11 super star strangers on the pitch. There all come from different style of football. and are required to gel in such a short period of time? No football doesn't work that way. It is a team sport and there is no miracle that any coach can perform which would make 22 players suddenly develop a rhythm after playing together for just 3 days it just doesn't work that way with football. The result is a situation where so called smaller team (small because majority of their players play in their domestic league.) start to upset the Bigger teams.

There was a time in African football where it was an advantage to have Big* players in Europe. This was a time when the profile of african players is not as big as it is now. Were many african players always warmed the bench or where just squared members and most play for smaller European teams (mostly in Belgium and france) Hence players can leave their club for weeks and would not be missed. times have changed friends. African players are now hot cakes and clubs want to hold on to them afor as much as possible. making them less and less available for their national team. Take alook at the trend in this nations cup

Mali: The country with the best mid field in Africa on paper based the number of High profile players who play in their midfield. They didnt even make it past the first round.

Ivory Coast: On paper the best African Country ATM. there were roundly beaten by Algeria a country many of us cant even remember the name of one of their player before the tourney.

Cameroon: Another huge african country with top players playing in many big leagues in europe. there were beaten comprehensively by an Egyptian side largely made up of home best players

Nigeria: Another country that took 100% foreign based players to Afcon was on the ropes for most of their games against Zambia and had to result to penalties to win their game

The facts speaks for themselves friends. The problem of Nigerian team goes beyond just the Coach. Amodu may not be the best coach in the world. But given the situation I think he has done a good job and we should all praise him for that. In other to ever make an impact in Afcon we have to put our house in order and fix our domestic leagues so that we can produce a team largely based on home based players who have time to get to train and know each other. add one of 3 experience players from Europe and you have a killer recipe for Afcon. Blaming the coach is really just trying make him a scape goat for a much more bigger problem.

Many people say that Siasia is the best coach we have, forgeting that on 2 occassions when he took laurels for the nations he used players who have been playing together for over a year. In 2005 he took a bunch of largely unknown players to the u21 tourney and there got a silver. what many  didnt know what the fact that Siasia boys had been playing together for clsoe to 2 years preparing for the championship same time happened in the olympic were he took roughly same players and got a silver. What happened when we was drafted to a team in just less then 4 months to the championship? his boys failed. why? lack of consistency.

I end my rather long post with this saying

I player that makes the team great is better than a great player

My bro u try in ur analysis/post no b small, but d truth is dat because kano pillars went up 2 egypt and knocked alhaly out of d champions league does not mean dat our league is strong enough 2 produce 11 guys 4 d eagles not 2 talk of 23. Anyways i concur dat having all our players in europe does not necessarily guaranty success but we still need 2 SACK Amodu & d thieves & rouges in d glass house.

I do not agree with u as it seems that ur analysis is limited to afcon. Have u taken a very good look at the teams that qualified for the world cup. Look at them closely. How many of them have entirely home based squads? Apart from south africa, none of the five teams are brimming with ur so-called local talent. South africa with its advanced league is the crappiest of the lot. Egypt with its "superpower" squad of local talent couldnt even qualify for the world cup itself so what are you trying to say exactly?