₦airaland Forum

kog45 has not exonerated anybody all he is saying is their are 2 sides to a story. knowing the facts we have on ground it's only logical to be puzzled at dele's extreme beef for his parents.

with his mother yes she was an alcoholic but she never gave him up for adoption and we don't know if she abused him whether emotional or physical at least dele or anyone close to him hasn't said otherwise. the mother also as far as we know hasn't been extorting him.

with his father the facts in public domain suggest he cared for his son. sent him to the best expensive schools, made him his best man, bought him his first car, allowed him to go and pursue his dreams of playing football professionally. plus as far as we know no public reports of abuse whether emotional or physical.

anyway dele is a full grown adult who can make any decision that bests suits him. i'm no psychologist and i don't mean to make light of dele's reasons for what he's doing i just find it like everyone else kinda somehow.

all the best to him anyways

komekn:
You are trying to present opinion and circumstance as FACT.

You really do not know the impact of his Fathers action on Dele Alli, i could go into a long discussion about it. It simply defeats the purpose.


Dele Alli feels so aggrieved so abandoned that he gives more recognition to his foster parents than his own biological father, ad to that he even want to remove his fathers name from his identity.

But instead of appreciating his pain and turmoil that drove him to such an act of despair and disappointment. You are exonerating his Father and condemning the son. You simply have no idea.

I wont even bother myself to expose the half truths you have presented here for the gullible to eat up.

with FIFA especially of them sepp blatter, jack warner days anything could happen. anyways you are rightly interrogating the efficiency of this MRI of a thing but until conclusive evidence shows it can be gamed i'm sticking with the results before me

goldfish80:
I don't think it will be easy to influence a random selection. FIFA and continental affiliates also use random selection to test players at various competitions for doping.
Recall Rio Ferdinand's case.

we are both still saying the same thing FIFA random tests could have been ''adjusted'' to ensure the random picked ones were the sure bankers who would pass the test. the 2009 test was still fraught with mystery, uncertainty and doubt. as for the 2013-2015 sets there were 3 levels of testing NFF, CAF then FIFA no test is ever full proof but the MRI scan judging from the results in the iheanacho and osimhen sets is definitely a major improvement.

look at this example you run a border post you randomly screen passengers for contraband you don't need to be a genius that many will scale through the system but get a body and luggage screening machine you will definitely see a drastic change

goldfish80:
Subsequent U17s after 2009 were also tested by the Nff, maybe FIFA tests the players before the tournament but you have to scale the Nff's private test before FIFA ran theirs. I say this with certainty however, I stand to be corrected.

For the uptheent time and as a matter of fact, FIFA used MRI in 2009. Burkina Faso was also affected as some of their players failed the test in 2009.
FIFA claims the MRI is full proof but that haven't proved to be accurate by my findings.

remember nigeria was hosting so it makes sense ''stuffs'' were done to help us. as long as the full screening was done by us and not FIFA anything goes. for all you know maybe the stories of players being screened out and dropped could have been a kite flown by the nff to give the impression we were serious about curbing age cheating. alot of funny things weren't on before we hosted that competition. host cities being dropped then reselected out of the blues.

goldfish80:
The MRI scan in 2009 was mandatory because of FIFA's random check. Every member of the team was checked twice by the Nff to make sure they didn't fall victim of FIFA's random selection.
Guys like Edafe Egbedi, Stanley Okoro, Terry Envo and even Omeruo were chronologically older than 17.

You call it a private test, but that same private test disqualified so many other players and the same private test have been used by the Nff ever since till date.
Was it not a private test that disqualified the players Uzoho replaced in 2013?
Why would you believe the Nff gamed the system by adding players who failed Mri with the risk of getting disqualified if they were accidentally picked up by FIFA's routine assessment team in a tournament Nigeria was hosting? It sounds ridiculous.

you've tried bro but people will believe what they want to believe each to his own

make i find trouble small how far with our under 20 team na

tbaba1234:
Before 2007, we knew some of the players were not under 17 and we could demonstrably prove that especially for those who had played in the league for long enough. People in the media knew.

For Instance, in the current under 20 team, we know several players that are way past 20. Graduates of Nigerian Institutions.

This kind of verifiable evidence is not available for the last few under 17 teams (2013 and 2015). In fact, in most cases, we can prove that they are the right age or close to it (max 2/3 years older). That is what MRI has helped us do. Cheating has been drastically reduced.

a couple yes philip osondu after the 1987 set. another player whose name i can't readily recall from the 2007 set it was Ade Ojiekere the sport journalist who wrote an exclusive on the guy blowing the whole lid on the matter.

MRI has definitely helped to reduce age cheating. is it 100% perfect? no even the proponents of the test have never claimed such but at least now we have a fair idea who the true youngsters are. anecdotal evidence of the likes of iheanacho, awoniyi, ndidi, uzoho, osimhen further strengthens my belief in the test.

like others have said until you post scientific evidence of 20 and above year olds passing the test then all you have is speculation, hearsay and personal opinion

Mickael2:
Quick question, did we have any scandal before that 2009? If I am correct Fortune has been the only unfortunate guy, so does that mean that Chrisantus and co were 17 in 2007 because there was no scandal then?

read my reply to edi287

Icon79:
You made some good points except for trying to blame VicMo for our attacking woes in Russia. Except for our first game against Croatia, VicMo played as a Wingback in Russia.

As regards to the rest of your arguments, here are some facts I would leave with you and everyone else:
1. Gernot Rohr is definitely NOT the right man for the job. This world cup clearly exposed his technical deficiencies as a coach. And the fact that after nearly two years at the helm, Rohr still doesn't know what's his best team is sadly disappointing.
2. Based on everything I have seen, Rohr has taken this team as far as he could take them. Fact: the 3 first games he had with this team - vs Zambia (away), Algeria (home), and Cameroun (home) were his best performances with this team. Since that time the team standard has actually started going down rather than improving.
3. Samson Siasia would have done much better with this team if he were given the same support and the freehand Gernot Rohr received.

Having said all that, I still think we should retain Rohr simply because firing him would take us back another 4 years. For instance, if we are to fire Rohr today, the NFF isn't gonna replace him with Siasia or with even a more competent foreign coach. Rather, if we fire him, the NFF would replace him with that charlatan, Yusuf! To me, that would be going from frying pan to fire. Hence, all things considered, I believe that it's in our best interest to stick with Gernot Rohr at least through the AFCON. Let's give him a mandate to make, at least, the finals of AFCON or get fired.


O pari

is rohr the best tactically? maybe not but would i blame him solely for us crashing out of the world cup? no i can't because as a coach was it his fault that against croatia etebo deflected the ball into our own goal or his fault that ekong brought down mandzukic or that ighalo missed two guilt edged chances against argentina? if we had better players maybe we won't be having this conversation. i personally think rohr can do better when better players are discovered and added to the team. i see where we were before he came and i think we have made progress

edi287:
Rohr has been getting away with suspect tactical decisions which many overlooked as a result of good fortune...think back to the game against SA where he started a midfield 3 of Ndidi - Onazi - Etebo and playing Iheanacho who isn't a target man as a 9. Playing Mikel as a 10 with 2 destroyers behind him who aren't good passers is another example.
He's a good man manager and all and I like the feel good factor he's brought back to the team.
However - based on results, you can't criticize Keshi and praise Rohr. It's crazy to do so.
Rohr is just not that great tactically. I don't mind him staying till 2022, but he has to improve. Man management will not get you anywhere without the right tactics.

stop with over generalizing so all ex-internationals are without honour and altruistic motives? don't let too much cynicism prevent you from analyzing issues on there merit. all this talk of you how things are always done in nigeria will prevent us from recognizing when progress is being made.

in answering your query i make no assumptions we just have to continue to try and engage the best people whether former players or not. guys like danny shittu who has shown passion for kids should be engaged.

lastly komekn nigeria will not change just by complaining and pointing out wrongs without giving solutions. we should all as stakeholders continue to insist and make sure the right things are done. even the almighty english football system didn't get to where it is overnight. player wages, hooliganism, stadium safety, racism where once horrible problems that lasted for years but a few brave people continued to challenge the status quo until things changed sometimes drastic other times gradual.

nigeria football even the country has a long way to go but we are making progress. might no be as fast as we want but it's still progress and we all should continue to contribute until we are where we want to be as a country not just sitting on our hands complaining expecting angels to come down from heaven to solve problems for us.

komekn:
First of all you make assumption about Nigerian players and thier commitment to youth development.

You will be shocked how Nigerian players outside of camp do big man for each other.

How many of our players brought players into the clubs they played in.

going forward we need to be strategic in where we want our team to be in the world cup. currently the super eagles based on the calibre of players we have now is only good enough to compete favourable in the group stage maybe with good fortune of easier groups or lucky result we might make it to the second round which is usually our bus stop. we have to honestly access ourselves and say this is where we are currently so what can we do to raise our level? in my opinion if we start doing the right things today it will probably take us 3-4 to put ourselves in the position to realistic compete to win the world cup.

to get to that level first administration has to continue to maintain high professionalism not just for this tournament but every single one going forward. for coaching history tells us indigenous coaches of national teams usually lead their countries to winning the tournament so we need to start grooming our coaches whether ex-internationals or locally based we have to ensure they meet minimum criteria of coaching knowledge with requisite qualifications. in the short term attach them to good foreign coaches with the view to them eventually taking over. of course integrity, high tactical knowledge plus managerial nous will be criteria chosen to select such nigerian coaches. nff can help by insisting you must have the caf qualifications to coach npfl sides.

for players we need to change how we scout players. from a foreign based angle we should select knowledgeable, trustworthy scouts preferably ex players based in those targeted countries to look for nigerian players with high bias for skill/technical ability. let them also establish relationship with these nigerian born players from their 10s to teens. for back home same thing but with emphasis on choosing skilful players we need to weed jambodies out of the system.

also the league is the bedrock of any football country. we need to get it to a top level that any coach we hire will not hesitate to pick a player from.

us fans also have a part to play by giving real supportership no half hearted conditional backing only when the team is doing well. take a cue from other countries in that regard

i've read many reasons of what caused our ouster but i think alot of them are unrealistic. for one based on the calibre of players we paraded it wasn't a huge surprise that we couldn't make it out of our group. compared to croatia and argentina most of our players are not world beaters. people may say o but argentina was terrible but it took a french team full of world class players to best them. As much as rohr has his faults in the way he coached the super eagles at the world cup the truth is if odion had buried his chances we probably won't be having this conversation. sacking him with the mindset that the next person will perform magic and tactically turn your average players to world beaters is plainly delusional. you can have the best tactics but if your personnel are not up to scratch then unless your opposition is seriously off form and you are playing out of your skin more often than not you will lose. even klopp that said with lesser teams you can beat more talented opposition why is he not coaching bristol city or watford or huddersfield to prove his point. he prefers to coach teams that have appreciable levels of talent that will give him a chance. bringing it back to why we didn't succeed in russia i think the attacking talent we paraded let us down. apart from musa nobody brought their A game as far as the striking department was concerned. ighalo, KC and moses didn't do enough in my opinion. we can blame rohr for not giving iwobi and simmy enough chances to show what they could do

Daejoyoung:
That's what I'm saying, your argument on the side of Nigeria all along have been based on emotions not facts. Defending Nigeria, Kenya or humanity is not worth it, but doing our best to call a spade a spade at all times should be the goal. We may be wrong and could change our position at anytime, but then this should be based on sound reasoning not emotions or meaningless patriotism.

i follow this thread off and on i still insist this thread is tantamount to saying my broken down jalopy is better than yours. we are wasting time insulting ourselves because there are many challenges bedevilling our two countries to engage in debates that nobody is going to win. kenya is great and better in some aspects likewise nigeria is awesome and trumps kenya in certain respects. we need to collaborate and improve each in areas we are lacking. in asia you won't find chinese, japanese or koreans engaging in silly childish arguments.

i would employ all of us to use our smarts and time for more meaningful pursuits.

i dream of a developed africa that is peaceful, cultural and respectful to all people and their rights. God bless Nigeria Kenya Ghana Ethiopia South Africa whole of Mother and Humanity as a whole

goldfish80:
I think you need to get some facts correct. I am not in support for an unproven player to be invited to the Super Eagles. But at times you have special cases and you make exceptions when you see a geniue prospect.

Make no mistake about it, Nwakali have won many man of the match awards in his time with Maastricht. As a matter of fact he was rated as Arsenal's best loanee player in the 2016/2017 season by Arsenal's youth team expert, Jeorge Bird (I take it that you're familiar with this name). His man of the match award against Athletico is another indication of his potentials. It is nothing to scoff at trust me.

The Rabiu Ibrahim example doesn't fit in because Rabiu was a victim of bad handling. I know how highly regarded he was at Sporting Lisbon at the time and it all happened in a flash, bounced around European teams, who always get him signed up after just a training session. Must be said though Rabiu wasn't at the best health wise as he had heart failures.

For Nwakali, let's see as the season goes. He has every talent to succeed at international level. The ball is in his court how well he improves and Nigeria will be in for exciting times if he realised his potential, that is if he doesn't get converted to a no9.

gbam you said it all but expect another round of you are expressing emotive bias bla bla bla

Icon79:
Pls could you provide the link to the full story? Thanks


O pari

i pasted it some posts back but here it is again anyway

http://kwese.espn.com/football/nigeria/story/3554878/nigeria-captain-john-mikel-obi-father-kidnapped-for-ransom-during-world-cup

welcome bro

smh didn't you read the part where he said nobody knew whether rohr or nff or players. as for whether he was motivated that argentina game in my opinion was his best at the world cup. true self sacrificial leadership on Mikel's part big ups to him

beethoven:
This is where I d say the coach was stupid. He should have played someone else instead of Mikel. Of all the players on the pitch that day, Mikel was the least motivated to continue playing in the world cup in Russia. Even if we had advanced, he would have flown back to Naija to sort out things.

While I dont blame him, he played most of his passes backwards. He could not motivate the team to hangon till the end. And to the people that kidnapped his dad, all doors to their success in life will be shut! unless they repent.

"I was confused. I did not know what to do, but in the end I knew that I could not let 180 million Nigerians down," Mikel said.

"I had to shut it out of my head and go and represent my country first. I was told that they would shoot my dad instantly if I reported to the authorities or told anybody.

"And I did not want to discuss it with the coach because I did not want my issue to become a distraction to the coach or the rest of the team on the day of such an important game. So as much as I wanted to discuss it with the coach, I could not do it."

really don't have words to describe this. if politicians had just 10% of this man's guts this country would be a far better place

http://kwese.espn.com/football/nigeria/story/3554878/nigeria-captain-john-mikel-obi-father-kidnapped-for-ransom-during-world-cup

wow my respect to Mikel will never end. some of us were criticizing him for some unknown reasons yet nobody fans, team mates, rohr, nff knew what he was going through. to think despite the mental torture of knowing his father was kidnapped but still leading us to almost getting a result against argentina is really way and above the call of duty Odogwu na man you be thank God for your father's safe return

komekn:
On loan from Eerste Divisie 2nd tier of Dutch football from MVV Maastricht.

His contract is owned by Arsenal but he has never kicked a ball for them in a competitive game. Not even the U23's.

He has gone to the mighty Porto I hope he gets game time. Because it looks like he will end up in the B side.

mr komekn and later you will accuse someone of displaying emotional bias. if K .nwakali does well at porto won't he ultimately benefit the national team? why must you always display catty and obnoxious opinions to players you don't like? first it was iheanacho then osimhen later balogun before your latest pet peeve k.nwakali. yours is a classic case of player hating at least wait to see whether he gets game time or not before sanctimoniously declaring where he will end up

Icon4s:
Do you know what it is to play against a host nation?
Uruguay has a very well drilled and compact team that has not concenceded a single goal in 2018

my boss the Egyptians had the easiest group they should have at least gotten a draw against Uruguay with Russia I don't buy the home advantage talk with mental toughness they would have beaten the Russians if not gotten a draw losing to a very poor Saudi team is almost unforgivable

Afobear:
Say that without wailing sir

troll

Afobear:
chief , I heard you are still lamenting seriously....take heart please !!! There is still Chan and other tourney for your Averageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee3eeeee3eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee team

I hope you are finally feeding yourself from this trolling hustle of yours

hi everyone hope y'all are doing great won't lie still hurting from yesterday felt really bad this morning but that's football for you. i know we were all feeling bad and i can understand the need to vent but don't be too harsh on the players especially ighalo. odion knows he ffd up and his terrible miss will leave with him for the rest of his career.

special shout out to musa you proved your doubters me included that you are a big game player.

francis well done kept with maturity and calmness beyond your young age sky is your starting point.

omeruo, balogun, ekong et al kudos to you guys mikel did his best wasn't always on form but gave his best and led his troops admirably.

i think rohr should be retained even though i understand and respect some posters opinions that he should go i feel the positives he has brought to our football are alot with addition and discovery of better players i feel he can achieve more but the backroom staff has to be juggle with the addition of young enterprising nigerian coaches to the technical crew. amunike and finidi come to mind. salisu should be permanently posted to the chan eagles.

this current administration of nff led by amaju pinnick should be re-elected but he should play his politics well and paddy up with the sport ministry/fg so they wont cause confusion like the election charade of 2014.

to all the posters mutjahida, joebie, icon4, kog45, goodjoe, safarigirl, forgiveness, supernerd, basco, komekn, icon79, aig17 and others so numerous to mention you all rock!

GO SUPER EAGLES LIVE TO SOAR ANOTHER DAY

I salute the boys did all they could don't like singling out anybody for criticism but ighalo let us down badly when you can't take your chances you get punished. Rojo got away with one with that handball anyway no use crying over spilt milk truth is we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. All said and done win or lose I will always support the super eagles

game day you know how we roll time for Eagles to Soar. May God reward our hard work. Amen with you 100% whatever happens.

LET'S GO SUPER EAGLES FLY TO THE SECOND ROUND

komekn:
That's absolutely correct, he is young, expectedly nervous and inexperienced.

He takes the safest option for a goalkeeper not confident in the players in front of him. This will be a continous theme with Uzoho.

That means you must to create an aerial option for him. Against Iceland that happened too many times. Against a better Argentina we can concede possession so cheaply.

Ighalo is our best option with regards to aerial ability hold-up play and a threatening physical presence. This means Musa can feed off Ighalo. I am certain Ighalo will bully the Argentine defence.

This is something that Iwobi or KC simply can not do.

I understand why you suggest ighalo yes he has decent hold up play but my concern about him like everyone else is his potency and dynamism front of goal.

I wouldn't have a problem with him if he made up for his lack of goals with ability to assist his strike partner or at least bring his fellow players into play unfortunately he does none of those

komekn:
What about Higuain

exactly nobody has pointed the tactical threat he offers.

Your point about francis always hoofing the ball upfield to me that shows he is taking the option of safety first if we had midfielders who could easily beat the high press I'm sure he would prefer to use such passing channels

Mickael2:
this one is not about balls, its about how we defend. See the criminal spaces we were giving to the Iceland midfield, we were well aware that Sirgudsson is a set piece master yet we kept on dashing them over and again, thankfully they kept on missing and since we won we are going to leave those spaces again against Argentina. Now if you leave that kinda space against teams who have a player that deals with small small pockets of space like Argentina or Brazil or Belgium it will not work because their best player will keep on getting on the ball allowing him more time to do damage. If we leave half as much space as we did against Iceland for Messi and co we will regret it that's for sure

true talk but I would say different teams will mean different tactics and approaches.

The kind of space you can afford to give Iceland you don't need a football analyst to tell you would be suicidal if given to argentina I expect us to be more compact but we have to find a way to ensure we have some possession to ease the expected attacking bursts from them

diadem10:
The thing is he gets into many great position but wastes it either by falling on his butt, excessive head down dribbling when a pass should suffice or balloning the ball into the crowds, that's when he isn't putting in poor crosses.

No one is saying he's not hardworking but he's not as intelligent.

no doubt victor moses is a good athlete but his decision making can be better when he gets it right which I pray he does against argentina he can be quite deadly

Hello house was working super sport this morning and they did a tactical analysis suggesting that if higuain should start alongside messi and aguero they will deal with us how do you guys reckon we can reduce the effectiveness of this forward line of the argies?

One thing is for sure we have to start matches much better because if we are lethargic in the first half as previous games then I'm scared what the argentinians might do to us.

forgiveness:
Whether the match was meaningless or not, Enyeama showed he had the trait of a great goalkeeper in that particular match. Finito

I am not saying Uzoho is bad but if we see a better goalkeeper than him, it should be a welcome development.

Abi, you no dey pray to get something better than Enyeama?

yes he had the trait but nobody could have guessed he would become best goalkeeper ever he was still rough around the edges then

Yes I want the best for every position what I'm saying is francis has also shown signs that he will be one of our great goalkeepers

Yes I want someone better than vincent and francis might just be the one but that does not mean we won't keep looking for the best goalkeepers just like any other position on the field

Triniti:
breaking news.......Carl Ikeme free from cancer!!!

glory to God best news today

Goodjoe I hail I find your point on the musa iheanacho goal scenario interesting but like the good book says paul plants peter waters who cares as long as souls are won and in this case goal scored.

Forgiveness I can't change your view about francis but note when Enyeama kept in 2002 it was in a meaningless last match against england that nothing was on the line. Vincent as of then was still a raw package who took years to become the legendary goalkeeper that he is. In the early years he wasn't good saving penalties remember how Dele aiyenugba always had to replace him when it came to penalty shootouts in CAF champions league matches. Also he wasn't initially great with crosses but we're still stuck with him even though he was rough around the edges.

Uzoho on the other hand has been thrown into the deep end and to the young man's credit he has so far done exceptionally well. Is it crosses he has done well is it free kicks he has saved alot penalties he will get better besides the ones he conceded can beat any goalkeeper. The only fear I had was if he won't b over whelmed by the huge occasion but apart from the poland match where he showed some jitteriness he has been a calm influence in the defence. Of all the goals we have let in its only one we can blame him for the second English goal in the friendly even that can be excused.

Mark my words francis will be a good servant for many years for the super eagles

On to more important things glad to see the technical crew is showing seriousness by training today we need to start to prepare for the Argentinians. They are desperate wounded animals who will come at us with everything they have got. Hope rohr drills our players to cope with the onslaught. If we are smart and resolute the argentinians vulnerable and there for the taking. May God reward our hardwork. Amen

LET'S GO SUPER EAGLES.