₦airaland Forum

InstagramQueen:
Heard some betting site can be dubious, as in bringing measures to seize or steal your money sometimes or when you win

semid4lyfe:
Baba, I did not absolve the NFF of blame but your arguement still leans too heavily on the NFF as if they tied the players legs on the pich.

Also, you're rewriting history. Jose Peseiro was employed on a 70k USD/month contract but after some mixed results and difficulty paying his salary, the NFF offered him a reduced 50k USD salary to stay on and take the team to the AFCON, which he accepted.

He refused to renew the 50K USD/month contract when it expired at the end of AFCON, and demanded an increased salary to stay on as coach stating he had offers from other places.

After failing to reach an agreement with the NFF, JP expectedly announced his departure and the NFF moved on and appointed his deputy Finidi George as the substantive coach which I hailed and supported at that time because Finidi had the highest coaching badge, and some experience working in Europe, deputizing JP and coaching in the NPFL.

Your assertion that lots of Nigerians wanted JP gone after the AFCON is not entirely true. Reactions to JP continuing as coach was mixed. I wanted him to continue because he showed his tactical acumen and flexibility after the qualifiers and first AFCON game by deployed a 3-5-1-1 formation that fixed our goals leaking issue, and got us to the FINAL. I mean, from 4-3-3, JP switched to a 3-5-1-1 that made us defensively disciplined, solid and dispatched teams playing some prime catenaccio ball akin to Italy of 2006 world cup.

I also think you overestimate the Super Eagles brand with your quality of coach statement, and we have to be realistic with the kinda coaches we can appoint.. There's no way we can attract first class coaches like Ancelotti, Mourinho and the likes. They're way above our league. Even the first class African/African experienced coaches like Pitso Motsimane, Hugo Broos, Herve Rennard are above our league. I think the right profile of coaches for the Super Eagles are young African, European, South American coaches who are within the age bracket of 40-55. and are eager to make a name for themselves. Think coaches like Pedro Goncalves, Djamel Belmadi, Aliou Cisse etc So by my assessment,Eric Chelle is a perfect fit for the job.

As for Finidi, with the benefit of hindsight, I agree he wasn’t ready. But even if Pep Guardiola was coach, the same players that struggled to beat Lesotho would still be the same players. National team coaches don’t perform magic. They work with what is available.

This NFF is the biggest culprit angle ignores the biggest elephant in the room, the players, who did not perform at the level required. You mentioned those early qualifiers. Exactly!. That is where we lost the plot. Even with all the NFF wahala, you don’t drop points at home to Lesotho. You don’t lose against Benin on a neutral ground. That one is not bonus issue or NFF delay. That’s players lacking hunger and performing poorly.

NFF didn't ask Ndidi to play the ball wide one-on-one with the Zimbabwe goalie in Uyo. NFF didn't instruct Troost Ekong not to tackle the Zimbabwean player that scored the 89th minute equalizer against us in Uyo. NFF didn't ask Troost Ekong to score an own goal from a non-threatening square ball in SA. NFF didn't ask Ndidi to get in the way of Chukwueze to possibly score our second goal against DR Congo. NFF didn't ask Ndidi not to clear the ball that led to DR Congo's equalizer. NFF didn't ask Bassey, Simon and Ajayi to play poor penalties. I could go on and on.

NFF has blame. Nobody is arguing that. Their administrative ineptitude is embarrassing. But to pin everything on them while giving the players and coaches a lighter share of the blame is inaccurate

NFF failed in organization (10%). Coaches failed in tactics (20%) Players failed in mentality and execution (70%).

Again, all the laurels we have won in football has been in spite of the NFF.
If the players had the spine. mentality, and fortitude, the Super Eagles would have qualified in spite of the NFF.

I rest my fingers.

kennysville:
I do hope we all know that we didnt lose because of the defence. We lost because of mentality and grit. The team has been conditioned to double legged affair and not tournament mode. All of these because we got so used to leaving our midfield for opponents to use as they see fit.

If we continue deploying the same set of midfield, we will still become clueless and look lost.

mrwilliams9:
These are the same players that went to the AFCOM 23 final. They should look to push on and take the final step.

Egypt went three in a row. Cameroon went back to back. Senegal lost in 2019 before then winning in 2021.

SymphonyRad:
Me I've stopped investing my emotions on this set of players, the world cup hurt unsurprisingly took me less than 24 hours to recover from. Right now, while much needed changes starting from compulsory resignations must be enforced on the NFF starting from that waste of space Eguavoen, the Super Eagles team itself now has to be drastically changed, only players like Osimhen, Benjamin Fredrick (who should be made the poster boy of the new generation), Nwabali (still a good GK despite his unbearable antics but needs massive competition now), Maduka, Aina, Felix Agu (need to see more of him at the AFCON), Bassey (he and Benjamin have a perfect partnership), and then for other full-backs: players like Bruno and Sanusi can be kept around till we find better replacements hopefully soonest; which makes me hope we still get a chance to make Michael Kayode consider Nigeria, along with Ahanor.

Players that MUST BE RETIRED OUTRIGHTLY

William Troost Ekong (bye, you've served well but football has left you),
Simon Moses ( same with Ekong, should have been phased out 5-6 years ago),
Semilore Ajayi ( a player who has always blown hot and cold, decent on his best days but very uneventful on his normal days),
Wilfred Ndidi (done and dusted, he's just not it anymore...that moment when he kicked air when a simple tap in was all but needed from that Lookman's pass to make it 2-0 against DRC was the highlight of it all, any other player would have scored that easily and the dynamics of that game would have been different today).

Players who should be phased out

Osayi-Samuel- just a boring and uneventful player, decent sometimes but a largely forgettable player.

Tolu Arokodare- just a very average player who flattered to deceive in Belgium, haven't seen a more unbalanced player who can't hold up play and lacks aerial intelligence and abilities despite his height advantage, Congolese midgets pretty much bullied and out-jumped him all game, thought he was the perfect backup to Osimhen but he just isn't it.

Alhassan Yusuf: This dude is so forgettable that I reckon calling him up is just to fulfill some necessary quota slot for Northerners to be in the team for sake of national belonging, cause his inclusion makes no sense in every footballing logic.


Players who should be on probation depending on how their AFCON performances go:

Alex Iwobi: The less said the better, but this brother was never the second coming of his uncle Jay Jay, it just wasn't to be and it's fine, we might never see another like JJ Okocha ever again. He has one last chance to make a redemption arc for himself this AFCON, play your heart out and win gold for Nigeria, and write youe name in gold Alex.

Chukwueze: A very frustrating player whose international career story can only be summed up in the conjecture of "what ifs?"...maybe he's just better suited as a CAM but we will never know with Chukwueze, AFCON is his last chance.

Ademola Lookman: Something isn't quite right with this brother, granted his stint at Atalanta hasn't quite been favorable lately but he isn't just at his best right now, Ademola on his best days is a world class player, but he needs to get it all together and perhaps use this AFCON to prove he is still THAT GUY...with age no longer on his side in football terms, he has to step up big time and win this AFCON...Nigerians have been patient enough.

Players who still need time to settle

Akor Adams
Uche Christiantus
Chidera

Time to build around:

Benjamin Fredrick (face of the new generation)
Ebenezer Akinsanmiro
Frank Onyeka
Raphael Onyedika
Rafiu Durosimi
Sani Suleiman
Philip Otele
Franklin Uchenna Tebo
Micheal Kayode (if he decides to switch)
Ahanor (if he decides to switch)
David Moses
Odinaka Emmanuel Okoro
Chibuike Nwaiwu
Gibson Yah
Fisayo Dele-Bashiru
Arthur Okonkwo (if he decides for Nigeria)
Ryan Alebiosu
And any other young and exciting Nigerian player out there whether foreign or local born and based.

Osimhen must be made captain and will lead this large core of new generation players from the AFCON where most of them will be integrated as we build towards the next world cup by playing top quality friendly games next year, NFF must schedule those games and make sure our 2026 football calendar is busy, no excuses anymore and we are done with the player bonus rows and drama, all that nonsense should end now.

Lastly Chelle must be retained and supported to win the AFCON...he's still a good coach and the fact that the team even got this far after the rubbish he inherited from Finidi and Peseiro is a testament to that. Depending on the AFCON, he should be given a contract extension and given a freehand to invite his own players and build his team, enough of this disgusting madness of NFF using player agents to force rubbish deadweights on the coach, let all the end going into 2026.

TheCongo2:
Your forecast was wrong

QueenJazz:
Setting aside the fact that the players were godawful themselves, we had two full days to train and work tactics, and somehow we couldn't plan in the event of penalties? Did Chelle seriously think the game was sure to be wrapped in regular time?

You couldn't bring in Ekong in the dying seconds to prepare for the shootout?

I get that he's still somewhat inexperienced with the squad, but really?!

Also, you're monitoring 5000+ players, and somehow you can't identify anyone to solve a midfield problem we've been having for almost decades now?

Like I said, Eric Chelle stays, but my oh my was he thoroughly exposed in this game.

Pillar12:
Akor ko Akon ni


Person wey dey completely anonymous throughout the match

Hardrive:
The previous 3 matches we played with 2 strikers, we got Wonderful results only for us to go back to the tactics that almost eliminated us just to accommodate players that are confused about what to do on the pitch. Very Sad.

LordTheus:
Tolu and Adams have been severely exposed. The search for an Osimhen replacement continues.

nairavsdollars:
Prophet its now 60 minutes

GenderMix:
Nigeria will win 2-1 against Congo

Iwobi , lukmon and chukweze need to be substituted.

cr7lomo:
Person wey de championship de captain Naija ... Ndidi has long past his prime ...still living on past glory ...he sudnt be playing for Nigeria again

Dannyxy:
Ndidi is not the problem, Iwobi is the problem so far..

Reference:
Thank you.
Fresh legs with fresh ideas.
See what Onyeka did this match.

They keep on recycling poor players match after match. What did Iwobi play last two matches to deserve a start here.