₦airaland Forum

lbrichman2:
I guess they're waiting until results of the games versus Tanzania next month

aaah ok o so we are still not convinced about Chelle

GMBOFASIA:
This present Golden generation when was the last time you played WC?

na you call them golden generation, not me

If these ex-players come out to respond to Oliseh now, we will all suddenly become online moral instructors. Oliseh can't just respect himself, and he wants others to always respect him- rubbish.

lbrichman2:
I mean it
We just need to keep Chelle and tighten our administrative angle..

What's even the update about Chelle's contract sef? Are we renewing or not cos I don tire

GMBOFASIA:
They never struggle to qualify for Afcon and World cup
ranked 5th in fifa ranking

even that 94 World Cup was a struggle to qualify, dey play! It took a hard-fought draw in Algiers to qualify

Napoleon55:
If you lack the comprehension to understand my post,that's your problem.

Our golden generation and the present generation are the same to you,because they finish second and 3rd,good for you.

But will your explicit bias against our legends ever erase their heroic deeds?
The records and facts are there for everyone to see,even for those who pretend not to see.

My points are far different from what Oliseh was trying to say.

What is golden about that generation is that they were pioneers especially qualifying for our first word cup, is not that they were like Morocco that got to the semifinal it’s the same second round they got to that another super eagles generation after them has achieved too! Even this current generation we all bash a lot has produced two APOTY so what’s the fixation about the 94 set that we even like to exaggerate and twist facts to justify that those after them are not quality enough! Haba. For example our greatest keeper ever in terms of stats and international acclaim is enyeama but no some people will come and say that some keepers in the earlier era are better than him. Phew!

darkelf:
Same players couldn't qualify you for a tournament that had more reps from Africa bro

The players are the problem. Stop blaming refs abeg.

Senegal best that same morocco

Is that not what I said that the players let us down 😂 what are you even saying

Napoleon55:
Because you were not the only country with quality players in top European leagues.

Having elite players in top leagues is just one of the fundamental conditions for consistent achievements.
It's never set in stones that once you have players in top clubs,you must be winning.
There are still other conditions which we clearly fell short then,which we are still failing to get right now,example, administrative and coaching aspects of the game.

Having stated this,

From 1994 to 2004,
so does winning one AFCON trophy,
one 2nd place and two 3rd place finish still counts as nothing despite missing two editions due to political reasons?
Plus 5th place FIFA ranking.
Three world cups appearances,
including back to back second round world cups appearances.

Or were you expecting them to just went all the way to WC Finals and win it at the expense of more quality players playing in biggest clubs in the world?

Compared to this our present generation with 8 years of no WC appearance,just 2nd and 3rd AFCON finish,plus one AFCON to forget.
If the present generation doesn't prove that they can do better than the previous golden generation, it would appear ridiculous by trying to water down whatever they achieved in that era.

You’re just contradicting yourself the issue is in 94 which clubs were our players playing in? All the era or period after they got huge club signings still they couldn’t replicate the 94 feat! It’s still the same 2nd and 3rd place
Afcon finish and in 2006 (funny you left that out 😂) we couldn’t qualify for the World Cup with same players. Stick with the facts please and stop allowing the likes of Oliseh sell you lamba

zicky:
But we have always made it to the semis, always among the top 4.

So what’s the difference then

M7even:
We had played CIV twice and lost . in 2006 AFCON and they stopped us at the semi finals. For some reason they were becoming our boggie man. They had played the 2012 final and lost to Zambia in penalties. They were finalist before then as well and lost to the greatest Afcon squad of Egypt. They had pedigree with names to boast of. In 2013 we assembled what many felt was out weakest squad coached under Keshi . It was reported that the players had packed up their bags to leave the hotel in the inevitable lose to CIV. It was certainly at that tournament that players like Ahmed Musa, Ideye, Ambrose Efe, Elderson Echiejile , Emmanuel Emenike and Onazi etched their names in the history of Nigerian football. They stepped up and delivered for us. And that was the final tournament for CIV's Drogba who never lifted an AFCON only for CIV to finally win the following AFCON led by Yaya Toure

That 2006 Afcon where we lost to civ had the likes of Taiwo, oruma, okocha, Kanu, martins, yobo, Obodo, utaka, Makinwa et al o what can be more elite than this!

chrisooblog:
Men that 2000 squad tight o!

Kanu with Arsenal, Okocha and Godwin Okpara with PSG, Okunowo with Barca, Taribo AC Milan, Babayaro Chelsea, Oliseh Juventus, Ikpeba Dortmund just to mention a few.

Yeah a very star studded team and some of these players still went on to play in 2002 and 2004! We ought to have to pick at least two afcons in these era. So all these talk of elite players no be today

NasirIbnLaAhad:
‎I personally don't think our current crop of players are outright trash. Although, I'm quite uneasy about the conclusions certain people are drawing from this debate. Don't get it twisted, please: YOU NEED ELITE PLAYERS TO WIN AND/OR AT LEAST COMPETE in any competition. It's not guaranteed that you'll win every tournament, but what it can guarantee you is consistency across multiple competitions, and a much higher ceiling in tournaments and general playing performance. Yes, there'll always be a Greece or Cape Verde that can pop out of nowhere to shock everyone, but these cases are few and far between when you take stock of football history across decades. Elite teams with elite players will most often finish in the final eight of five tournaments back to back. A team with less players may stumble onto a win one moment and then for the next ten years they can't even qualify for the competition. Tournament football has high variance, and a cup run can happen for any team on any given month. Nobody builds a programme around luck. If the plan is "hope we get lucky like Cape Verde," that isn't a plan. You MUST ALWAYS USE your best legs.
‎
‎For me, the question isn't whether our players are at big clubs. It's whether they have the hunger and discipline and ambition to want to succeed at a consistent rate. Yes our current Super Eagles have some talent, but I don't see the same urgency, drive or consistency that I see in teams like DRC or Ivory Coast. What use is your talent if you can't mark, can't track back, give too much respect to your opponent etc.? That's why the only players I respect in the current squad are Bassey, Frederick and Osimhen. If everyone in the squad had these guys' mentality, it's not unlikely that we'd have won the last two AFCONs back to back. Quality without hunger just produces nice highlights and early exits. Spain at the last WC was my favorite team for this same reason. They knew how to fight and squeeze life out of teams and give them no space to play. They had stamina for days. So I'd put it this way. You don't strictly need ten superstars. But you need a core of genuinely high-level players, hunger and drive across the squad, and of course, a working youth system feeding new talent, which the NFF has sworn against.

We talk as if we never had these elite players; there was a time we had both Martins and Makinwa at the top of their game in Italy, and as strikers in the national team, still we couldn’t win Afcon; it’s still the same bronze or semi-final we got.

The second paragraph of your submission is where I have always stood: the hunger, drive, and ambition of the players, which, as I will say again, is what will position them for big clubs to knock on their doors. When they do well with the national team, we would have more of our players in big, elite clubs.

Napoleon55:
These things are just simple things that shouldn't be too difficult to understand, but some of you just like to get it twisted.

CIV and Nigeria were the two countries that had more players in better clubs,or even better players than others.
So if Nigeria defeats CIV,no one should call it an upset.

CIV had the Touré brothers at Man City,Gevinho at Arsenal and Drogba their biggest star even though he was not in Chelsea during the competition.
Nigeria had Enyeama at the top of his game,
Victor Moses and Mikel at top of his game in Chelsea. Emenike and Onazi were big factors even not in big clubs.
Talent for talent, Nigeria could match them,it was 50-50 or 55-45 chance, it was always going to be who had the the better tactics, or who was luckier.

Nigeria defeating CIV with the players at their disposal should not be considered as an upset.

Just as in Africa today,
Among these countries, Senegal,Morocco,CIV, Nigeria.
Even the likes of Ghana and Algeria,
Which ever country that manages to win an AFCON should not be seen as a surprise.
It's not necessary the country with the more players in big clubs that have monopoly of highest chance of winning.
All of them have players in big clubs and top leagues.

😂 but the truth is despite all the high profile players in big clubs we have had we have not been winning Afcon like we should so what are we even saying!

AndSunGorilla:
Which elite players did Morocco have when they made it to the SFs, Ziyech the elite player was steadily chopping bench. Which elite players did Costa Rica have when they made QFs. Which elite players did the Banku eaters have?

I just tire if when you had players playing for arsenal, ac Milan, Ajax of old not this fake one now, inter Milan, psg, Chelsea etc you couldn’t reach quarter finals na now you Dey find elite players kwa! Make we kuku use AI then

Samueltemi337:
I saw a post here when someone said 15 years ago our players were playing for big clubs
I still wonder the big clubs they were playing for
We waited 24 years after Kanu before we finally won the APOTY

😂 truth is the period they all played for big clubs we no win anything shi shi we no see even to qualify for World Cup na war and night vigil prayers to scale through and go out in the first round, set awon big clubs players kwa 😂

AndSunGorilla:
Victor Moses wasn't yet in a big club then.
MODIFIED
He had left Wigan and was in Chelsa, si yes he was in a big club.

He was in Chelsea already, he just joined then

Napoleon55:
We have Victor Moses and Mikel Obi who was reigning champions league winner then.

Now compare our players to other countries that we played against,
apart from CIV,which other countries do you think have more players in bigger clubs than our players then that should give them the edge to win ahead of us.

Were you expecting Bokina Faso to defeat us in AFCON finals?

So you had just two players, yet you defeated a star studded civ team and think it’s a flash in the pan?

See In the year 2000 the Oliseh making mouth now and the national team he captained then could not win Afcon on home soil and I doubt the Cameroonian team had players in bigger clubs than our players then. We had players in arsenal, ac Milan, PSG etc. check the Cameroon team apart from njitap at Real Madrid others can’t be compared to where eagles players were in 2000

chrisooblog:
Honestly I always roll my eyes when some journalists and ex footballers from the 1994 set parrot the narrative that our golden generation of players were playing in the biggest and best clubs that year.

Oliseh? random club in Belgium. Same for Chidi Nwanu, Alloy Agu, Ikpeba etc.

Even baba Yekini na one small club for Portugal he dey.

The only high-profile clubs (then!) one or two of our players featured in then were Finidi (Ajax) and Siasia (Nantes)

Even after Olympic triumph na only few players play for big club even at that some weren't starters.

Na Gen Z’s they can deceive and say all those rubbish to is it amunike that was in Egypt playing for Zamalek we wan talk

It was performance for the national team especially after the 94 World Cup that made these players started playing for bigger clubs!

Blueelf:
BUt he said Setubal were portuguese heavyweights then

Or is he wrong??

Heavyweights as how na, they were even in the lower division when Yekini joined the club before they got promoted

GMBOFASIA:
Read and see were he emphasize on such occasions are rare

The 1994 team that won AFCON: how many were in big clubs when they won AFCON, including the Oliseh that is talking from both sides of the mouth? Where was he in 1994?

EElopa:
The only strikers in world football i will take over Victor Osimhen in that 9 position are Kane, Halland and Mbappe. Victor normally should be in champions league contending team. Calvin Bassey is going to Inter Milan in the summer. Chukwueze is at AC Milan and Ademola Lookman is at Atletico Madarid. You don't need to have elite players at every position all you need is 3 to 4 different makers surrounded by good players who play as a unit and you can wreck havoc. Croatia and Norway are a good example of teams where the sums are bigger than the individual talent.

The 2013 AFCON team just had Mikel, Moses, Onazi, (with an Ogude on the bench o), and Emenike, who were the real engine of that team. Mikel and Moses were the only ones playing in a major club like Chelsea; the rest we knew where they were.

Our current team just needs more bodies in the midfield like the 2013 team had to win AFCON

Napoleon55:
A country that have majority of their players at top clubs will always stand a greater chance of winning competitions almost all the time,less we deceive ourselves,
except for rare occasions,Zambia in 2012 for instance,and Greece in 2004.
Don't always expect that kind of upset to happen.

A big footballing nation need to have their players at big clubs first,if not,expecting to crush those who have their players at Real Madrid,Barcelona,Man city,etc. is wild dream.
Spain or Brazil will not expect their players to win world cup if majority of their players are mid table and relegation bound clubs players.

Plus you still need few players to be top level performers to stand a chance, 3 or 4 players is enough

Our players need to work hard,win something with national team so that better clubs can sign them.

How many of your players were in big clubs when you won Afcon in 2013

EElopa:
I disagree with you completely on that statement. Nigeria's problem is administrative issues. I will take the Nigeria keeper over Morocco or Senegal. I will take Nigerian centre backs over Morocco and Senegal. I will take Nigeria right back, Ola Aina, over Senegal right back. Forget hype, Alex Iwobi is one of the most underrated SE players in history. I will take Alex Iwobi in that CM role over whatever Morocco or Senegal has to offer. Currently, both Senegal and Morocco are clearly better than us in the midfield area. An Inform Ademola Lookman and Samuel Chukwueze are on the same level as anything Senegal or Morocco can offer in that winger position. Victor Oshimhen is significantly better than anything Morocco or Senegal have to offer. People, you guys are understimating Nigeria too much here. Nigeria was a penalty kick away from back-to-back Afcon finals, and they were not even a host on either occasion. Nigeria's failure to qualify for the World Cup was a combination of an administrative blunder and a poor attitude from players who completely underestimated their opponents. Go back and watch the Nigeria vs. Losotho game in Uyo and see how arrogant our players were. They were missing clear-cut chances and were smiling, thinking that the goals would eventually flow in like a broken dam. If Eric Chelle were the SE coach, we would have been at the last World Cup.

💯 you nailed it. Nothing to add!

The 2023 Afcon was ours but for the terrible officiating and the host nation who did everything on and off the pitch to win. That same host nation could not get past the quarterfinals in the last edition despite having a better team than the previous edition. The 2025 edition we saw the dubious ref in that semifinal still it took penalties and Chuks misfiring to give Morocco the win. For the World Cup it was down to our players who let us down and some of us said it repeatedly here!

TheSuperNerd:
Mourinho's first El Clásico since his return to Real Madrid ends in a win at the Camp nou.

Mbappe Brace. Yan Diomande solid showing. Camavinga redemption performance. Bellingham and Pedri are the topmost elite midfielders of this generation.

Brilliant game.

And entertaining too; the special one indeed is back, am expecting more dramatic El Clásico games

charlesemeka85:
ignorance na disease and your own go soon become pandemic

So Gala play or win clubs like Ajax,Juve,Arsenal, Man United etc for UCL win dem mean say dey be mate?

So as Gala won it’s only European trophy till date against Arsenal mean say they re a bigger club than the English side?

Once again receive sense

Na addiction to big names Dey worry you and your kind, at the World Cup do we not see countries like Netherlands and Germany featuring players from the Turkish league? If those players were finished will they be featured? The same you no rate psg until they start winning the champions league back to back abeg go relax. Una go Dey talk as if VO hasn’t played in bigger leagues before now! If he had moved from Napoli to Ajax na the same thing na go still Dey talk how he has fallen from grace!

charlesemeka85:
Gala is no where close to Ajax in terms of European club football pedigree

Mk una carry una “Oh yes” member disgusting any side wey belle face attitude support ur rubbish Galatasaray and Turkish league without spewing una ignorance

The same rotten attitude and mentality wey damage every sector in Nigeria as a nation

Imagine putting Galatasaray and a whole Ajax in the same bracket because Osimhen plays there?

Receive sense

Park one side jor, both Gala and Ajax play in the champions league regularly! Is this Ajax the same Ajax of old? smh

darkelf:
Please you didn't read with understanding

I didn't call the Dutch league a top 5 league

I said that some teams in top 5 league want osimhen but consider his wages too high

So, it's not a travesty if he lowers it a little and delay gratification for his legacy sake
Thats the advice

But if he thinks turkey is all he needs, then by all means, it's his career, not mine

Just hear yourself 😂 you were shading osihmen over the move of Tolu to the Dutch league you come Dey speak grammar. I agree with you Tolu sef delayed gratification by moving to the Dutch league instead of turkey 😂

darkelf:
If that's the case, then he has also earned my respect for that too

That's what we demand from.our players

It's not as if the money they will pay them in a top 5 leag3 club is less. What they will typically earn in a week, some people would never earn that in their entire lives (if their earnings were put together)

So when they say Osimhen doesn't want to leave turkey because of weekly wages which are too high, I think that's not a good enough reason at all. He could earn higher in Saudi Arabia at the end of his career if he cements his legacy in a top 5 league in europe

So Dutch league na top 5 league now abi, una funny o the same Ajax Gala beat last year Even in UEFA rankings, the Dutch league is rated 8 while the Turkish league is at 9, so what's the difference?

At the end, even Tolu can't offer much in our national team; it's an insult to compare him to Osimhen. The person you even quoted was one of the ringleaders calling the French league the farmers league until PSG won the Champions League. Make una cool down na no go gree, smh

Sowore, you're becoming a societal nuisance. You claim that those you helped then have gone ahead to accomplish great things, including becoming a SAN; perhaps it's time for you to reflect. You're still behaving as if you're a campus student compared to your peers who are mature and not throwing tantrums every day. Bro, it's time for deep sober reflection; either you focus on your successful online news platform, or you find something else to do. Some of us who have been great admirers of your courage since the days of the military are becoming fed up with your childish behaviour.

Samueltemi337:
Osimhen played really well in the second half

And he’s just coming back from injury!

zicky:
what about Pep going to France to challenge his record ☺️

What else is pep going to achieve in France the onus is on Enrique going to to epl to surpass Pep

elyte89:
Did treble with Barca ,(one champions league trophy included), two with psg now and several trophies too

He should come into the EPL and challenge Pep's record, then we can compare notes