Those calling for Amodu to be sacked should knw that all the favourites apart from Eypt did not make it to the last four, any coach who wants Nigeria team should wait and after the wc quailfy us or 2oo2 will repeat it self.

Job well done Coach Amodou and all Super Eagles.

They are always happy with second best, YEYE, Hissssssss Always back to drawing boards to construct failure, FOOLS AT THE GLASS HOUSE

its only in Nigeria that people are so short sighted about events.everybody was shouting crucify king kanu,now they are shouting long live kanu.if only we had a good coach he would know that he would pick his players based on performance during training and not what the people say.now that we are out of contention we now have an attack minded midfielder.poor Nigeria

The Nigerian Premier Leauge, Heartland FC & Kano Pillars all you guys are top in Africa, the Orange CAF Champions Leauge proved that.

Upcomming Teams will be most definitly brothers in DR.Congo, T.P. Mazembe (DR.Congo,Lubumbashi) and thier National Team


Looks like DRCongo , Nigeria ,Ghana and others are headed for top in Africa foot ball. It all starts at the local League level in Every Country.

After I saw Congo in The Africa /Asia Playoff this DRcongo team will be a team to contend with along with Ghana.

The statement in bold is a LIE!!!!! Malians, Camerounians, Beninois, Senegalese, Algerians and Tunisians play for other national teams. Should that mean they all deserve to win the AFCON?

For this fool that labeled my comment about “1 out of every 4 Africans are Nigerians” as being a LIE. . .  This is what happens when you put an illiterate in front of a keyboard!!! Why didn’t you just LOOK IT UP (its called research) rather than labeling the statement a lie?  Now part of this thread moved towards discussions on why Amodu should be sacked and why the NFF should “wise up” and stop settling for mediocrity, but since ow11 wants to challenge me on facts, I will have to school him on what we call facts.  Pasted below is a screenshot from Wikipedia which states exactly what I quoted which ow11 stated was a LIE (I underlined the statement in question in red)



The lesson to learn here ow11 is not to type rubbish before thinking. . . So, since I have schooled this young man, allow me to present me argument again. 1 out of every 4 Africans are Nigerians, having the population that accounts for 1/4th of Africa in combination to the fact that we have Nigerians playing for various other National teams, how can the NFF have such a rubbish target of the semi finals, what kind of nonsense is that? 

Notice I used the word “in combination” which means if someone wishes to refute my argument they should take into consideration both statements and not just one (ow11).

@tatase

Your post was simply excellent.
Make people wey wan die with AMODU continue their ass-licking campaign. HE MUST BE SACKED.

@Luniyi

The paragon of education with abysmally poor maths skills -

             


How does ~149million = a quarter of a billion?

woody bronze

@Luniyi

The paragon of education with abysmally poor maths skills -

How does ~149million = a quarter of a billion?

Abysmally poor maths skills- (I guess you are referring to Wikipedia not me. . .)  BTW Wiki also states your chart below as an estimation, and suggests in the same context that the population is 840 million and not the 1 billion listed in your chart below. . . 


CIA World Fact book doesn't have the numbers as high as Wikipedia does. . .

Also Wikipedia list Nigeria at 154 million . . .


Other sources such as library.thinkquest.org has Africa's population around 680 + million . . .


I can gather many other sources that can back up these stats (though all census facts about Nigeria and Africa are estimations). 

Not to drift off into a tangent and focus on the main part of my argument, given your premise (or your rebuttal of mine) I guess you believe we as a Nation achieved the best possible feat at Angola (by receiving 3rd place)?  I guess we should celebrate 3rd place?  Should we also celebrate our performance in Angola and use that as a paradigm for success in South Africa?

Pressed2mi:

I wonder why we all take the pains to analyse this 3rd place match! If u ask me, even if FIFA gathers the best world eleven ( including the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Kaka etc) against the super chickens, as long as it is for a 3rd place match, Nigeria will win that match and convincingly too.

We now have a permanent 3rd position. If Nigeria crashes out of the world cup in the group stage, we will still come 3rd.

naija like 3rd position sha!

hahahah, even if we dont qualify for 2016, we will magically still be 3rd place

Pressed2mi:

I wonder why we all take the pains to analyse this 3rd place match! If u ask me, even if FIFA gathers the best world eleven ( including the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Kaka etc) against the super chickens, as long as it is for a 3rd place match, Nigeria will win that match and convincingly too.

We now have a permanent 3rd position. If Nigeria crashes out of the world cup in the group stage, we will still come 3rd.

naija like 3rd position sha!

hahahah, even if we dont qualify for 2014, we will magically still be 3rd place  

@luniyi

The UNFPA insists the population of Africa is about a billion see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8366591.stm. This is a body whose major aim is to ''support countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect''.

I would believe this figure over any other source.

Back to footie issues, I would think that finishing higher than CIV, Cameroun and outplaying Egypt in the first half of the opening group game is not a bad result for a team with very poor players like we do.

There are many reasons and things wrong with our national team and Amodu isn't one of them. Nigeria began playing poorly from the qualifying series for the 2006 World cup/ Nations cup. Four coaches later, we still play rubbish footie and still sincerely believe our problem is with the latest coach.

We do NOT deserve to win the CAN if we are not organised internally. If we believe by sheer numbers, we would win every footie tourney then China and India would be 1, 2 at every Olympic games.

We would not be successful in ANY future football tourney if we continue to cheat in youth tournaments and allow our home league to rot. We need better players.

@ ow11

I must admit, you are a formidable debater, we just got off on the wrong foot…  Having stated that, lets dissect your statements. . .

The UNFPA insists the population of Africa is about a billion see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8366591.stm. This is a body whose major aim is to ''support countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect''.

I would believe this figure over any other source.

That very same site (http://news.bbc.co.uk, ) is where Wikipedia got it’s quote about 1 out of every 4 Africans being Nigerian, furthermore while the UNFPA may be doing a stand up job in fighting AIDS/ HIV, poverty, etc (bless their souls. . .) the CIA World Fact book is a more creditable source IMHO. . .  I would rely on the CIA World Fact book any day over the UNFPA.

Back to footie issues, I would think that finishing higher than CIV, Cameroun and outplaying Egypt in the first half of the opening group game is not a bad result for a team with very poor players like we do.

Games are not scored by how a team did the first 30 minutes of the match, they are scored by how many goals are scored, the team with the most goals at the end of the game wins, it’s a very simple concept.  The fact is that our boys played with NO emotion, NO inspiration and that is partially the coach’s fault, its enough of the coach’s fault for us to demand for him to be sacked, this is the point of contention.   We backed into the WC, with regards to “power house” Football teams in Africa, apart from Egypt that faced a bitter elimination from the WC by Algeria we had the most to prove out of the remaining African football power houses teams coming into the ACON because of the way we qualified for the WC.  We backed in to the WC shamefully cheerleading for Mozambique to beat a team that we couldn’t beat.  Now how does this relate to the coach, the coach’s duty apart from providing technical guidance is to INSPIRE, and if players don’t play with inspiration they should be shown their way to the bench even before halftime.  Any soccer fan that wants to understand the power of inspiration should watch the documentary on the U.S. Women soccer team, their coach’s biggest contribution was to inspire them and make them push themselves. . .  You see, it’s not merely our 3rd place finish that angered me (and a lot of fans), it’s the way our boys played.  As for Cameroon, and CIV, please give me a break, they are bad examples as they just happened to get a bad luck seating/outcome (especially Cameroon).  When we initially qualified to move on to the quarterfinals and we awaited the Winner and runner up of group D you cannot tell me that a lot of Nigerians weren’t praying that Cameroon didn’t win that group because we knew what would have happened if they won group D.  Speaking of Cameroon, if anyone watched the final match of Group D between Cameroon and Tunisia one would have seen what it means to play with inspiration.  The Tunisian team was clearly over-matched but played their hearts out for that 2-2 draw, skill has a lot to do with winning (don’t get me wrong), but inspiration is what gives a team an extra push needed to win, this comes from the coach, professional players shouldn’t need motivation to do their job but that’s not always the case given the nature of these professional players (especially the ones that play for European clubs), they tend to get complacent and nonchalant (because of the money, fame, distractions, etc), this is where a non-nonsense coach comes into play, a coach that gives sound technical guidance and one that inspires, Amudo lacks BOTH (sorry to say).

We do NOT deserve to win the CAN if we are not organised internally. If we believe by sheer numbers, we would win every footie tourney then China and India would be 1, 2 at every Olympic games.

You took my comments out of context, I wish I had more time to explain to you how population is factored into athletic domination by a nation, this doesn’t only apply to soccer but most sports.  I am not saying that it (population and athletic domination) is inherent but there is a recognized correlation.  Using your example (though it’s not a good example for soccer because football is not an indigenous Chinese pastime such as martial arts, gymnastics, table tennis, swimming, etc), in the most recent Olympics, the gold medal count was dominated by China then the U.S., the point is, the more populous a nation the more there is a tendency for that nation to excel in athletics (especially an athletic sport that is an indigenous pastime for that particular nation).  There are always exceptions BUT there is a recognized correlation between population and athletic domination.
1). U.S. – most populous North American country – most successful in soccer at the Confederation level despite of it (soccer) not being an indigenous pastime in the U.S.
2). Brazil, Argentina – two of the more populous South American countries – most successful recently in soccer at the Confederation level
3). Egypt – one of the more populous countries in Africa - we all know how this goes…

Now, I will say this for the third time because I know you will still stubbornly take this out of context, this (population and athletic domination) isn’t inherent but there is a recognized correlation. I say this not to state that just because we are the most populous nation in Africa that we should implicitly be the best BUT RATHER it’s a SHAME that we are the most populous country in Africa and aren’t as dominant as we should be (please read this point again). 

We would not be successful in ANY future football tourney if we continue to cheat in youth tournaments and allow our home league to rot. We need better players.

I couldn’t agree more with your statement. . .  Excellent point, we need to stop the cheating in youth tournaments, the corruption that eats at the foundation of our governments transcends even into our athletics.  You are correct…  You are also correct about the players, WE NEED BETTER PLAYERS, no doubt about that, but I will say this.  The Zambian National team, though very tactically sound, did not have better players than the Nigerian National team (and I am talking about the teams that played in Angola).  We have had better players in Angola than Zambia did, so tell me why the outplayed us?  We were outplayed AND OUTCOACHED!!! When we won, all you saw were players on their knees praying and thanking God because they knew darn well we got lucky!!  Zambia had more corner kicks (nearly doubled ours), they pressed more, controlled possession time, more shots than us, more direct shots than us, the only thing they didn’t do was score, God had spoken our win into existence and that is the only reason we won.  So why do say all this?  It’s because of that word again, INSPIRATION, you don’t need to have the best players, but if they plan on wining they have to play inspired.  When Egypt played Algeria in the semis and were up by two, they could have went in defensive mood, but they felt like they had something to prove to Algeria, they sent a clear message to Algeria, they played inspired football. Players have the ability to play inspired BUT it’s the coaches duty to make sure they DO play inspired football, this is my point.  Some other Amodu critics question his technical knowledge as it relates to football and they do have a point, BUT that dude does not inspire those boys and that is the reason we under achieved in Angola.  Sack Amodu, save Nigerian Football!!

That very same site (http://news.bbc.co.uk, ) is where Wikipedia got it’s quote about 1 out of every 4 Africans being Nigerian, furthermore while the UNFPA may be doing a stand up job in fighting AIDS/ HIV, poverty, etc (bless their souls. . .) the CIA World Fact book is a more creditable source IMHO. . .  I would rely on the CIA World Fact book any day over the UNFPA.

1. The BBC article quoting 1 in 4 Africans did not quote any source unlike the atricle I posted where they accredited the number to the UNFPA which I repeat use population figures in their daily business. Disregarding them as unreliable is akin to believing a workman has no idea about what tools he needs to do his job.

2. Using the CIA values you still will fall short of the ''1 in 4'' stats you hold strongly to. My earlier wikipedia post gives figures from the US census bureau. . do the math, you are a smart fellow!

We backed in to the WC shamefully cheerleading for Mozambique to beat a team that we couldn’t beat.  Now how does this relate to the coach, the coach’s duty apart from providing technical guidance is to INSPIRE, and if players don’t play with inspiration they should be shown their way to the bench even before halftime.  Any soccer fan that wants to understand the power of inspiration should watch the documentary on the U.S. Women soccer team, their coach’s biggest contribution was to inspire them and make them push themselves. . . 

Our boys play with NO zeal which could stem from a disregard for the enormity of the task before them due to either being too close to the coach or the point you made about Amodu. However, I think It is a problem of lack of competition as evidenced by the actions of Shittu, Echiejile, Kaita and Olofinjana. Maybe the first mistake was to hire Amodu because the players from Osaze's outbursts do not hold any regard for him. Hassan Shehata rarely screams down the touchline but is able to build a formidable unit of players and can dump a petulant Mido because he has scoured the league for adequate replacements (Zaki).

At this point, replacing Amodu would shooting ourselves again in the foot and we SHOULD expect a repeat of 2002. I do not think the Eagles have played with ANY sort of inspiration, discipline or zeal since 2005. Our performance at the 2008 CAN should let you know that changing coaches do not necessarily mean players mentality would change.

For me, Amodu's biggest sin is his inability to pick home based players for his squads and even insist the NFF organise friendly games for his home based charges.

For your hypothesis that there exists a correlation between high achievements in sports and population size: Any nation can aspire to be dominant in sports BUT it takes a lot of hardwork and planning rather than mere numbers. If there exists a correlation, it is very minimal and can be disregarded as a means to achieve greatness in sports.

Mexico have won more Gold cup tournaments than the US. . . The other examples you gave have more to do with a better organised league than with population.

You would have to agree the English national team is more formidable today than they were in the early 90s with their crappy league. See the Italian league's decline and weakening of the national team. Unless our local league is encouraged and players picked from there, these prima donnas from back water leagues in Europe would continue to dish out this ugly football we have come to know as our own since 2005.

@ow11

Seems like we have “high jacked” this thread. . .   Anyway, the debate continues. . .   

1. The BBC article quoting 1 in 4 Africans did not quote any source unlike the atricle I posted where they accredited the number to the UNFPA which I repeat use population figures in their daily business. Disregarding them as unreliable is akin to believing a workman has no idea about what tools he needs to do his job.

Please point out to me the person that is “disregarding them as unreliable”, who said that the United Nations was unreliable? Surely not me (you can’t find that in my transcripts below), I merely stated that I would take the CIA World Fact book as factual any day over the information provided by the United Nations.  I have nothing against the UN, bless their souls, but the CIA World fact book is more objective and accurate in providing information. “The World Factbook remains the CIA's most widely disseminated and most popular product, now averaging almost 6 million visits each month”.  It is used for research papers as well as investigative journalism and journalism in general because it’s widely accepted by the media and scholarly individuals as factual.

2. Using the CIA values you still will fall short of the ''1 in 4'' stats you hold strongly to. My earlier wikipedia post gives figures from the US census bureau. . do the math, you are a smart fellow!

The CIA World Fact book places the numbers closer to premise I retrieved from Wiki, and the part about Wikipedia getting it's numbers from the census, it was the same Wikipedia that stated the original premise (1 in 4. . .)  It was the same Wikipedia that put the population at 840 Million (you can scroll down to the screenshot below and take a look again).  The same Wikipedia that you quoted as stating that the total population in Nigeria was 149 Million also stated in another chart that the population was 156 Million.   So I guess your chart from Wiki is correct while mine isn’t?    Also, the purpose for the initial quote from Wiki was to express how much it is a shame that we are the most populous country in Africa yet we are becoming less and less relevant in Football (a pastime indigenous to our Country), this is the point that I wanted the readers to get from my initial statement.

Our boys play with NO zeal which could stem from a disregard for the enormity of the task before them due to either being too close to the coach or the point you made about Amodu. However, I think It is a problem of lack of competition as evidenced by the actions of Shittu, Echiejile, Kaita and Olofinjana. Maybe the first mistake was to hire Amodu because the players from Osaze's outbursts do not hold any regard for him. Hassan Shehata rarely screams down the touchline but is able to build a formidable unit of players and can dump a petulant Mido because he has scoured the league for adequate replacements (Zaki).

We are thinking exactly along the same lines here…

At this point, replacing Amodu would shooting ourselves again in the foot and we SHOULD expect a repeat of 2002. I do not think the Eagles have played with ANY sort of inspiration, discipline or zeal since 2005. Our performance at the 2008 CAN should let you know that changing coaches do not necessarily mean players mentality would change.

You are wrong my friend, you are wrong, the mistake in 2002 can be avoided, the Coach selected is the key point.  Besides, 2002 deserves an asterisk because we got a very tough seeding, no matter how good we were, that WC first round wasn’t going to be a “walk in the park”, any of the three teams (Argentina, England or Sweden) we were seeded with could have won any of the other groups that year.  Despite all what I have written so far in this paragraph the main reason replacing the coach now would not hurt is because replacing the coach would not hurt (or disrupt the flow) ANY MORE than replacing some of the players (which we all agree needs to happen!!)  Some players need to be excused back to their European League play and Amodu needs to be sacked. These boys are not babies, they are professionals and should be able to handle the change, (my goodness) they still have 4 months before the WC.  NFF needs to “wise up”, stop the rubbish nonsense and hire a coach that will inspire these boys rather than a coach that the players do not revere.  I am willing to place a friendly wager that if Amodu stays as coach we will not make it out of the first round (mark my word).  I rather our boys go out to South Africa hot or cold with emotion than lukewarm and lifeless with no zeal because the coach and the players are “buddy buddy”.  Bring a no-nonsense coach that will tell some of these players what they need to hear, things like “you suck”, and “you have no discipline”, and “sit your a$$ on the bench, you are done for today”.

For me, Amodu's biggest sin is his inability to pick home based players for his squads and even insist the NFF organise friendly games for his home based charges.

I totally agree with you here…

For your hypothesis that there exists a correlation between high achievements in sports and population size: Any nation can aspire to be dominant in sports BUT it takes a lot of hardwork and planning rather than mere numbers. If there exists a correlation, it is very minimal and can be disregarded as a means to achieve greatness in sports.

Mexico have won more Gold cup tournaments than the US. . . The other examples you gave have more to do with a better organised league than with population.

You merely mentioning that my premise should be disregarded doesn’t make the premise false, it’s when you can prove that the premise is false that an objective thinker can make that determination. As for you and I, we will go back and forth and eventually “agree to disagree” but your proving my premise to be false is what will make an objective thinker think that way, not your merely stating it. 

I listed examples related to soccer in 3 continents (N. America, S. America, and Africa), in athletics China dominates (don’t take my word for it, go look up the Gold count for the most recent Olympics), for the earlier Olympics you will notice that before U.S.S.R was broken up they were up there with China and the U.S. for the total Gold and medals count. Your point about better organized leagues holds NO water in the U.S.  It’s the population, their success has much more to do with the population and diversity than with their league organization.  Soccer is one of the least revenue fetching sports in the U.S. hence there is no emphasis on Soccer, no where compared to Baseball, Basketball, and the almighty American Football (not soccer but American Football).  There is far more greater a league presence in Nigeria than in the U.S. 

You would have to agree the English national team is more formidable today than they were in the early 90s with their crappy league. See the Italian league's decline and weakening of the national team. Unless our local league is encouraged and players picked from there, these prima donnas from back water leagues in Europe would continue to dish out this ugly football we have come to know as our own since 2005.

I really like your point here. . . “Unless our local league is encouraged and players picked from there. . .” I couldn’t have stated this better myself.

@Luniyi_glo

methinks we are having this debate on the wrong thread but maybe it is even better . . . .

1. Regarding the population figures, we would have to agree to disagree then on the ratio of Nigerians to Africans. Since it is obvious to me, that well respected sources give it as 1:4, 1:5 and 1:9 approximately. . . Even our census figures are thought to be well below 150 million by some schools of thought.

2. The only thing that will make Nigeria play a little better than the borefest we were subjected to in Angola would be a slight change in personnel rather than a new coach. We have only one FIFA window in March before we begin preparations for the world cup. This is too short a time to bring in a good coach that can stand the bureaucracy in the glass house to work any wonders on Yakubu, Yobo, Nwaneri, Taiwo and Mikel. I would throw my hat into the ring and say Nigeria cannot beat Argentina ad South Korea in SA even with Capello in charge.

3. Our rotten bureaucracy would make it difficult to attract coaches like the ones mouthed off on various threads in this forum. We have ex-players with a lot of clout (thank goodness) who are used to working with the pig-headed goons (Lulu, Ojo-oba and Ogunjobi) in Abuja and should use them instead of looking and thinking that names like Nooij, Renard, Halihodzic,Vogts or Shehata would have the clout to inspire our prima donnas. Nigerian players in 1990 have a very different mentality from the ones in 2010. It would be hard for an unknown European coach to do a Westerhof with our boys.

4. You missed my point on the US. Mexico is MORE successful than the US in the CONCACAF Gold cup despite a smaller population and it is because they have a better home league than the US. The US team is more formidable these days due to the growth of the MLS which would produce better home grown talent. I still stand that a successful national team points to a largely successful home league. The rise of CIV can be attributed to Jean-Marc Guillou's ASEC revolution in 1998 when he picked 10-15 year olds to play for ASEC youth team. Since that act hasn't be replicated, I expect the CIV to become a mediocre team in Africa by 2016 much like Senegal puffed into the limelight briefly between 2000-2004.

5. Now that our clubs consistently reach the semi-finals in Africa It is the time to call up the best from them to the SE.

I listed examples related to soccer in 3 continents (N. America, S. America, and Africa), in athletics China dominates (don’t take my word for it, go look up the Gold count for the most recent Olympics), for the earlier Olympics you will notice that before U.S.S.R was broken up they were up there with China and the U.S. for the total Gold and medals count. Your point about better organized leagues holds NO water in the U.S.  It’s the population, their success has much more to do with the population and diversity than with their league organization.  Soccer is one of the least revenue fetching sports in the U.S. hence there is no emphasis on Soccer, no where compared to Baseball, Basketball, and the almighty American Football (not soccer but American Football).  There is far more greater a league presence in Nigeria than in the U.S. 

Did you say China was more successful in athletics at Beijing 2008?? I think NOT.

methinks we are having this debate on the wrong thread but maybe it is even better . . . .

@methinks
A beg nor mind us, even I dey tire for dis back and forth debate sef. . . 

@ow11
After this last round of rebuts I must return back to the nairaland Autos section where I spend 80% of my Nairaland time on. . .  But for now, I must continue to dissect (as if I were in Bio 306 – Anatomy and Physiology, that was a very tough class). . .    

1. Regarding the population figures, we would have to agree to disagree then on the ratio of Nigerians to Africans. Since it is obvious to me, that well respected sources give it as 1:4, 1:5 and 1:9 approximately. . . Even our census figures are thought to be well below 150 million by some schools of thought.    

I understand your position regarding this matter and even I myself (quite frankly) would probably not use the “1 out of every 4. . .” quote again in a debate BUT as I stated in my previous response, “the purpose for the initial quote from Wiki was to express how much it is a shame that we are the most populous country in Africa yet we are becoming less and less relevant in Football (a pastime indigenous to our Country), this is the point that I wanted the readers to get from my initial statement”. 

2. The only thing that will make Nigeria play a little better than the borefest we were subjected to in Angola would be a slight change in personnel rather than a new coach. We have only one FIFA window in March before we begin preparations for the world cup. This is too short a time to bring in a good coach that can stand the bureaucracy in the glass house to work any wonders on Yakubu, Yobo, Nwaneri, Taiwo and Mikel. I would throw my hat into the ring and say Nigeria cannot beat Argentina ad South Korea in SA even with Capello in charge.

I didn’t realize until a few days ago when I browsed through the other threads how much of a Football enthusiast you were, we share quite contrast views regarding Amodu (except for his being “buddy buddy” with players, his inability to require that “coaches respect” from players, his disregard for the home grown and Naija league players, etc) but one thing I will admit is that you know your football and you spend a lot of time on various threads proving this (that you are a Football fanatic).  Having stated this, we will have to agree to disagree on this point. First of all, that Italian dude you alluded to (Capello) has been known to sit “prima donnas” in favor of the hungrier player (I wish I had time to explain 3 VERY good examples of this but may be another day. . .).  Capello (just like many European and American coaches I could name) wouldn’t have played Nwaneri, Taiwo and Mikel that much in Angola when they started playing lukewarm (to teach them a lesson), and quite frankly their mere presence and performance in Angola made me want to puke given their flamboyant persona. .  .   Our boys (even U17) have the ability to play an entire game without a coach present, sure if they did it may look ugly but they know their positions, this is what they do, they don’t need to be spoon feed, they just need to learn more of the fundamentals of team play, mechanics, and to be inspired.  As I stated before, a new coach wouldn’t disrupt this team’s chemistry any more than a change in players.

3. Our rotten bureaucracy would make it difficult to attract coaches like the ones mouthed off on various threads in this forum. We have ex-players with a lot of clout (thank goodness) who are used to working with the pig-headed goons (Lulu, Ojo-oba and Ogunjobi) in Abuja and should use them instead of looking and thinking that names like Nooij, Renard, Halihodzic,Vogts or Shehata would have the clout to inspire our prima donnas. Nigerian players in 1990 have a very different mentality from the ones in 2010. It would be hard for an unknown European coach to do a Westerhof with our boys.

Despite my calling for Amodu to be dismissed I have to admit that those calling for him to be sacked without providing names of possible replacements are being counterproductive, but the reason I didn’t want to mention a coach was because I knew you would rip to pieces any of the coaches I had in mind so I know I have to be very careful with the names I might have a bias for.  Having stated this, those calling for Amodu to keep his job merely because he met the target set by NFF for the ACON must have not been watching the same games I was watching.  Anyway, I know a lot of fans on other threads have “mouthed-off” names that you may not like, but I actually don’t think the Hassan Shehata choice would be a bad one at all.  Even Shehata stated that it (his coaching our boys) would only be for a temporary basis (if he was offered the job), this would be a very good fit IMHO.

I will name 4 other possible coaches (not mentioned on the threads) later today. . .  I am actually late for a meeting. . . 

4. You missed my point on the US. Mexico is MORE successful than the US in the CONCACAF Gold cup despite a smaller population and it is because they have a better home league than the US. The US team is more formidable these days due to the growth of the MLS which would produce better home grown talent. I still stand that a successful national team points to a largely successful home league. The rise of CIV can be attributed to Jean-Marc Guillou's ASEC revolution in 1998 when he picked 10-15 year olds to play for ASEC youth team. Since that act hasn't be replicated, I expect the CIV to become a mediocre team in Africa by 2016 much like Senegal puffed into the limelight briefly between 2000-2004.

I will school you on the error of this argument later today. . .

5. Now that our clubs consistently reach the semi-finals in Africa It is the time to call up the best from them to the SE.

Let’s hope the NFF makes the correct ruling tomorrow. . .

Did you say China was more successful in athletics at Beijing 2008?? I think NOT.

Do some more research on this because your facts are wrong my friend, I will post the final Gold medal count from Beijing later today. . .  BTW look up the word athletics and stop taking my words out of context, by athletics I mean "Sports in general".

Too late . . .

ow11:

@luniyi

Back to footie issues, I would think that finishing higher than CIV, Cameroun and outplaying Egypt in the first half of the opening group game is not a bad result for a team with very poor players like we do.

i beg to disagree, we do not have a team with bad players (personally i believe that we would have gone further if we'd gone without a coach - ok i'm kidding) what we have is a coach that lacks ideas; why do people keep making noise about the fact that we made 3rd place? with the exception of Algeria what other team in that we beat is ranked among the top 10 in africa? if we'd beaten cameroon in the quarter finals maybe we could say Amodu tried but as far as i'm concerned, we got as far as we did because we were lucky not to meet any of the teams in our league
the same goes for our world/african nations cup qualifiers the only team we met throughout that was even close to us in ranking except Tunisia and we could only manage a draw. why couldn't the man have arranged friendlies with teams that were known to have actually won nations cups? then if we win we say we have a good record
abeg the guy has nothing to offer our senior team joo, they should drop him like a hot potato

I didn’t realize until a few days ago when I browsed through the other threads how much of a Football enthusiast you were, we share quite contrast views regarding Amodu (except for his being “buddy buddy” with players, his inability to require that “coaches respect” from players, his disregard for the home grown and Naija league players, etc) but one thing I will admit is that you know your football and you spend a lot of time on various threads proving this (that you are a Football fanatic). Having stated this, we will have to agree to disagree on this point. First of all, that Italian dude you alluded to (Capello) has been known to sit “prima donnas” in favor of the hungrier player (I wish I had time to explain 3 VERY good examples of this but may be another day. . .). Capello (just like many European and American coaches I could name) wouldn’t have played Nwaneri, Taiwo and Mikel that much in Angola when they started playing lukewarm (to teach them a lesson), and quite frankly their mere presence and performance in Angola made me want to puke given their flamboyant persona. . . Our boys (even U17) have the ability to play an entire game without a coach present, sure if they did it may look ugly but they know their positions, this is what they do, they don’t need to be spoon feed, they just need to learn more of the fundamentals of team play, mechanics, and to be inspired. As I stated before, a new coach wouldn’t disrupt this team’s chemistry any more than a change in players.

The NFF due to popular opinion have done away with Amodu and have drawn up a short list with 3 coaches that have never worked in Africa and 2 coaches that have taken an African team to the world cup as the highlight on their CVs. Not that Capello or even Van Gaal might not bring in the 'much feted inspiration' BUT Amodu has been known to drop players due to poor form (Taiwo 2x, Nwaneri, Olofinjana and K. Uche). This did not change the output of the players especially Taye Taiwo. **Except the hungrier players you mean are those not in the SE at the moment**

We like to think that our current set of players are good despite evidence pointing to the contrary. Let us see what either Bruno Metsu or Ratomir Djukovic will do with this average players we have at the world cup.

Now that the NFF have forced Amodu to unearth new talent from our league, I hope he does so or just resign already!

I will school you on the error of this argument later today. . .

You do realise Mexico has won more CONCACAF Gold cups and qualified for the mundial more times than the USA.

Do some more research on this because your facts are wrong my friend, I will post the final Gold medal count from Beijing later today. . . BTW look up the word athletics and stop taking my words out of context, by athletics I mean "Sports in general".

At the risk of sounding pedantic, you cannot use athletics for 'sports in general' when talking about the Olympic games because track and field events are called athletics at the Olympics. It is not wrong just inappropriate.

blackweaver:

i beg to disagree, we do not have a team with bad players (personally i believe that we would have gone further if we'd gone without a coach - ok i'm kidding) what we have is a coach that lacks ideas; why do people keep making noise about the fact that we made 3rd place? with the exception of Algeria what other team in that we beat is ranked among the top 10 in africa? if we'd beaten cameroon in the quarter finals maybe we could say Amodu tried but as far as i'm concerned, we got as far as we did because we were lucky not to meet any of the teams in our league
the same goes for our world/african nations cup qualifiers the only team we met throughout that was even close to us in ranking except Tunisia and we could only manage a draw. why couldn't the man have arranged friendlies with teams that were known to have actually won nations cups? then if we win we say we have a good record
abeg the guy has nothing to offer our senior team joo, they should drop him like a hot potato

Now Amodu's gone. . . A decent showing at the world cup will be cue for eggs on my face for insisting our players are at best average. Till then I still stand by my assertion. . .