Certitude:
Bad day for me as I lost my dear father this morning.

may he rest in perfect peace. God will give u the fortitude to bear the loss

[b]From Champions League to Checkatrade Trophy - why has Iheanacho bombed at Leicester?

[/b]Dec 13, 2017 10:30:00 Premier League

Signed for £25 million from Manchester City in the summer, the forward has started just two league games this season and could leave in January

At the age of 21, Kelechi Iheanacho has played in excess of 50 Premier League matches, has eight Champions League appearances under his belt, has garnered a £25 million transfer fee and is hopeful of leading the line for his country at this summer’s World Cup.

Why, then, has his only club start since late October come at Glanford Park, the home of Scunthorpe United, in a competition that primarily consists of clubs from England’s third and fourth tiers?


Eyebrows were raised when Leicester City opted to play six genuine first-team players in their recent Checkatrade Trophy victory in north Lincolnshire, no more so than when it was revealed that the Foxes’s primary summer signing would be starting up front.

Though Claude Puel was obviously keen for the Nigeria international to get some football having not appeared for the 2015-16 champions since November 18, Leicester fans have unsurprisingly been asking just why he has not been given more of an opportunity.

“He is a good player and if he improves he will find his place in the squad,” Puel said at the end of November. “We have a lot of players in this position. It is good competition between them and we will need all these players with good qualities and attitude.”

Since making those comments, Iheanacho has played precisely zero minutes in the Premier League, and was even left out of the squad altogether for the recent win against Tottenham.

Puel will rightly point to his side’s results in that period — three victories and a draw — but if Iheanacho cannot force his way in during the busy festive schedule, starting with Wednesday’s clash at Southampton, the question of whether he even has a future at the King Power Stadium must be asked.

A foot injury picked up in pre-season coupled with the good early season form of Shinji Okazaki alongside Jamie Vardy meant opportunities were hard to come by for Iheanacho in the immediate aftermath of his departure from Manchester City. The only hope he had was then-manager Craig Shakespeare’s insistence on playing two strikers as he looked to recapture the magic of the title-winning campaign of two seasons ago.

With Shakespeare now gone, though, Puel has reverted to a 4-2-3-1 system in a bid to allow Riyad Mahrez more freedom as well as bring Demarai Gray into the starting XI - and has picked up immediate results. It is no coincidence Iheanacho — who once upon a time boasted the best minutes-per-goal record of any player to have netted on at least 10 occasions in the Premier League — made his last league start in Shakespeare’s final game in charge.

So how does Iheanacho work himself into Puel’s plans? In just over six months’ time, he will be hoping to be starting his first World Cup match against Croatia ahead of facing down Lionel Messi and Argentina later in the group stage. Odion Ighalo has recently usurped him as the Super Eagles's first-choice striker, and it would be foolhardy for them to believe they can realistically rely on a player who has barely kicked a ball in anger in the months leading into the tournament.

One area where Iheanacho can improve is his adaptability. He was regularly compared to Marcus Rashford when both players were coming through the ranks on either side of the Manchester divide, and it is noticeable how Rashford has been able to maintain a regular place within the United line-up despite the arrivals of Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Undoubtedly a different kind of player from the England forward, Iheanacho can still pick up some lessons in terms of how open Rashford is to attempting to further his game in unfamiliar roles while also learning from the likes of Vardy and Okazaki back at Leicester, particularly when it comes to work-rate.

Puel has commented that the youngster is unable to play out wide, but with Mahrez likely to be the subject of yet more transfer speculation in January, a push from Iheanacho to prove he can help fill the void — either as a winger or a No.10 — might see him earn his chance.

The only other option would be me to move on in the upcoming January transfer window. West Ham were interested in his services during the summer while the likes of Newcastle and West Brom are desperately looking for a genuine goalscorer to help lift themselves away from trouble.

“Time will tell. The window is not open, we will see,” Puel said in the aftermath of Saturday’s win over Newcastle. With the likes of Islam Slimani, Leonardo Ulloa and Ahmed Musa also vying for a place in attack, it seems inevitable at least one will be moved on before the start of February.

What is for certain is that after 17 Premier League matches without a goal and having not played 90 minutes in the league since September 2016, Iheanacho needs to change something. Whether that is his own game or the club he plays for is up for debate, but one of the brightest young strikers in the English game simply cannot spend the remainder of the campaign playing in the Checkatrade Trophy.

source: http://m.goal.com/x/en-ng/news/4071/premier-league/2017/12/13/40994692/from-champions-league-to-checkatrade-trophy-why-has

safarigirl:
Indonesia ke?

These people are not ready at all

maybe they think the world cup is an Asian invitational tournament or they r prepping 4 Qatar 2022....

Iceland are planning a friendly with Indonesia national team and a select Indonesia Eleven in January, their last friendly was a 1-1 draw against Qatar in November.

Daejoyoung:

Amaju did well for sports in Delta states then, it was actually surprising to me that he started slowly in the glass house( not getting many things right at first).

I think the power tussle he had with his Nff presidential opponents after the elections affected the early parts oh his regime

4 the 1st time we seem to v an NFF president who knows what he z doing, who has a vision and all that, he has rebranded The super eagles alongside the LMC chairman Sheu dikko the npfl x improving as well albeit slowly.

I just saw a thread on fp about the Super falcons playing France in a friendly next year. this x a step in the right direction we need more of it, the change n growth in the Eagles affairs should stream down to other teams both male n female.

I can't wait for our female teams to replicate what we are seeing in the senior male team now. I hope the new super falcons coach is even way better than Rohr in handling the girls

I'm interested in what goes on in Group C as well. whoever qualifies from that group will determine our getting to Quaters and semis

group B looking like a potential group of death, first game Spain Portugal

group B potential group of death

this stat may give us a hint about the possibility of us winning the world cup

■All previous 20 World Cup tournaments have been won by a manager with the same nationality as the winning team.■

Icon4s:


You see, I just decided to see if I will for ones have patience for one of them today. I don't even believe I am the one doing this. I know how I normally treat them.

I don't know why they are all like this

I attended school with a couple of Ghanaians and they were never like this.

Same thing happened when we had kickoff Nigeria and kickoff Ghana. They would leave their boring kickoff Ghana to come and make trouble in our kickoff Nigeria.

I seriously don't know what they are looking 4 all around

Icon4s:


Don't be so quick to jump. Go back to my original comment. I included friendlies.

Sir i don't expect u to reply him again same as thegoodjoe and others. we know who they are and what they intend doing please let's ignore

sir Tbaba1234 congratulations on ur newborn, Sir Thegoodjoe happy birthday. God will continue to bless u both

krattoss:
The issue of Jersey is somehow overflogged here I think... jerseys doesn't give u the goals and jerseys preparation and likeness of jerseys 're relative so to say...

For me oooo I like the current jersey....although I care less about whether the jersey IS fine, masculine or feminine...

Jersey doesn't play football

it doesn't truly but it x still one of those small things that adds beauty to football and indeed the world cup, at least we sha won't play naked or any green material, in fact Fifa has a rules on Jerseys to show they are important as well. so no vex bro

Kakamorufu:
I saw these designs on twitter. Wish we can get Nike to make these.

Here is Egypt's 3rd kit for the WC. I hope Nike doesn't disappoint us with our kit design. The one u posted looks good, but I doubt Nike would put the dash in the chest but they could leave the Eagles logo, seems most designers are now trying to engrave national teams' identities on jersey, reminds me of Senegal''s white Jersey at the Afcon earlier this year.

If Adidas were still our kit makers they would av given us a modernised version of our 1994 kit, that's what they v done for Spain Germany and Belgium

and this made fp with few comments? I'm not surprised tho, when trash topics make fp on Monday mornings

MetalJigsaw:
Well, they have my support too.
But never expect a lot from them in this tournament.

Thank u 4 supporting them.

MetalJigsaw:
The problem is those guys are just below average. Not that Im nit supporting us but do they deserve it

to me this is segregation. they are also Super Eagles just that they are Home Based and as far as this thread remains the Super eagles thread the Chan Eagles will be discussed as well. thank u

edi287:
I'm scared we'll get a tough group. Look at Pot 2

the only lucky Draw we can get is to be in Group A with the hosts then avoid Spain nd Uruguay from pot 2 maybe Costa Rica and Iceland from pot 3 and I'm sure whoever we get in our group after those mentioned should be easier.

TheGoodJoe:


Partizan Belgrade is a good ground for development. They have a history of producing quality players including Jovetic, Ljajic, Vidic, Zoran Tosic, Stefan Savic and Nastatic. I think it is a good move based on the clubs talent production history. A step up.

I'm not sure I buy ur idea, I think dere a other clubs in the major leagues that will improve and develop him.

safarigirl:
he looks very different when he's not smiling

I prefer his smiley face

Abi. That was y I got confused

Keeping up with the players from the 2013 and 2015 sets of youth internationals

Mustapha Abdullahi Yautai joins Wikki Tourists Football Club of Bauchi ahead of the new Nigeria Professional Football League 2017/2018 season.

Safarigirl, thegoodjoe and icon4s please is he the one u used to call picture abi camera boy? Always present in every camp pictures bk then.

terzurum5:
Partizan Belgrade Tracking Super Eagles Star Oghenekaro Etebo



Serbian SuperLiga champions Partizan Belgrade are interested in signing Nigeria international Oghenekaro Etebo,a llnigeriasoccer.comcan exclusively report.
The 2016 Olympic Games star comes off contract with C.D. Feirense in the summer of 2019, but the Portuguese Primeira Liga outfit are willing to allow him depart the club as from the January transfer window if a suitor meets his asking price.
A representative from Partizan Belgrade was present at the Estádio da Luz, where Feirense faced off with Benfica on October 27 and was impressed with the performance of the number ten.
Etebo's camp will have a meeting with the Sporting Director of the The Black-Whites this week to discuss the formalities of a contract.
Since moving to Portugal from Warri Wolves in 2016, Etebo has scored 8 goals in 44 appearances for C.D. Feirense and has provided 6 assists.
He left Portugal this morning to link up with the Nigeria national team at their get-together in Morocco.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

ANS

This is not a positive move if it should happen in fact it's a step backwards apart from winning the local league and playing Europa league playoffs there x nothing enticing in Serbia 4 Etebo. He x a bit better than those kind of leagues

nelszx:

You mean this
It looks like Megatron

wacky raised to power 10

I'm not looking at Tammy's case as a loss but I see it as advertising the NFF and Nigeria as a country without plan to nurture and develop its talents. I dare ask if England do not v good footballing structure like Nigeria would we be able to find talents to pick from them? Until we start building structures that will help develop young talents in the country we would keep getting snubbed.

I expect the NFF to move into action by putting in place programs that will ensure progress of youth team players from the u13 to u23 into the NT, that is what the English Fa has in place that is giving all these boys with dual nationality a chance at playing national team football by showing what they can do.

I dare say that the u13 and u15 teams we have is not enough, players from the u17 find it difficult to get into the Super Eagles talk less of u13s and u15s, the NFF should find a way to ensure progression so that we can produce our own talents this would enlarge our pool of players.

I am afraid that if we fail to qualify for 2019 u17 and u20 world cups, the next decade after the 2022 WC would be worse than what we had in 2011 to 2017(excluding the WC in Brazil and 2013 Afcon win) and the reason is not far fetched - we would struggle to produce top quality players.

in 2011 we didn't go for the u17 in Mexico, we only carried the few useful players from 2009 u17 and the u20 in Colombia into the National team and some veterans. no one can say this is one player from that 2011 u17 team that failed in the NT or still active, (that doesnt mean the team didnt v players who sould be important to the NT in d future) but there was nothing to help them progress to mk things worse we didn't qualifi 4 the 2012 Olympics. the same for this 2017 u17 set. now if we don' t qualify for these age group world cups for a long time how would we manage to have players-Top quality players for the National team?

The league which is supposed to absorb these players and keep them engaged is not even up to the stage where it would improve the abilities and also maintain its talents.
The few quality players keep moving out very fast albeit into backwater leagues.

the few shinning lights from the 2017 u17 set like Nazifi Yahaya may fizzle out if he is not engaged or attached to a club and worse for players like him the u20 also failed to qualify, even the 2015 u17 team, their failure to qualify for 2017 u20 is jeopardising the careers of some of the players from that set.

MY POINT IS LET NFF IGNORE THESE DUAL NATIONALS ONLY FOCUS ON THOSE WHO ARE N
SHOWING INTEREST and DEVELOP A STRUCTURE TO START HARNESSING THE TALENTS IN THE COUNTRY.
We v many Alabas, Allis and Tammy in the country.

EngrIKEM:

Thanks do you know how goals he scored and his total appearance for the club and how many clubs he played against if it can be gotten cos our home clubs don't keep such information thanks

guy I'm not sure u can get the exact numbers, that is if u get any number at all.

I don't even know what to say to this.

It's not strange nowadays to see Nigerian men get married to old white ken for the green card andhere is a man who got married over the weekend and his white wife called him out on facebook.

Source : Kraks TV twitter page

This lady is good. she has everything to be better and create more records than what Perpetual Nkwocha has done. NFF should please treat our female teams better than what they get now. SA played a top friendly against a top female side likewise Ghana and before we know it these countries would catch up with us. Algrave cup, CYPRUS cup and the Shebelievs cup are top women football competitions we should join to make the super falcons more exposed and hopefully get better on the world scene, we v dominated Africa for long and it's becoming boring, Cameroon are coming behind so also is SA

Icon4s:


I know Obafemi Martins very well.

He was one of my boys back then at the white sand training pitch, in Lagos.

He is not up to 40. Haba.

He graduated from Coker Secondary school, Orile Igamnu in 1997. That was 20 years ago. Add 20 to average secondary school graduating students age . That would give you an estimate of Martins' age.

thank u for this I v not seen ur comment before I quoted him

elyte89:



Martins football age 34-35years....real age. 42-43years old, dis guys u re comparing martins re using real age not a falsified one

for a 42 43 year old those statistics of his this season are impressive, some true 20 to 29 year olds are not postin such. Stop ridiculing ursef with the way u accuse and attack the age or our players. this guy has been playing topflight since 2004 give him some respects now 13 years on he is still doing it. remove 13 from 43 that means he started playing at the age of 30. wehdone sa.......

please npowerng how can I apply for the npower scheme afresh please what are the guidelines and requirements thanks in advance

npowerng:


Send an Email back to the support@npvn.desk-mail.com that you have rectify the issue with your account.

please npowerng how can I apply for the npower scheme afresh please what are the guidelines and requirements thanks in advance

soetanoreoluwa:


Actually I really miss your update on NPFL.. Even though I do follow it...

Am not new though... Being following as a guest since 2013...after kickoffnigeria and SL10 closed down and someone from Sl10 ..i couldnot remember his name... Brought a suggestion of nairaland... That made me jumped in ... But I didn't register... Just doing ghost reading ..

Until we lost against Egypt... During AFCON qualifier last year... I was so disappointed and battered... First time in my life Nigeria missing out of two consecutive afcon...
Me too dey learn too... Thanks to the elders in the house for updating Indomie generation like us...

I was never part of SL10 and kickoff. I joined NL around 2013 although I had known of it before 2012. I joined in the discussion on the 2013 u17 n u20 threads and since then I v been like MTN, everywhere they go on thus thread iv been there