TheGoodJoe:
Stat on Richarlison.

Crucially, his work rate is comparable to Firmino’s: of forwards to play regularly (15+ games) in the Premier League this season, only him (2.1) and Swansea’s Jordan Ayew (2.5) have averaged more successful tackles per 90 minutes than Richarlison (two)

This is a great stat. He defends from the front, that's why he worth every penny. Jordan Ayew should be worth £80 at least.

edi287:

Funny thing is Gazidis is linked with a move to Milan and according to rumors is seriously considering it.
It'd be crazy if after waiting for Wenger to leave and making all these changes that he'd leave all that.
Everton are just spunking out money foolishly..they would've gotten Guedes for that amount. Heard they're linked with a 22m move for Digne.
They need a proper director of football

Lol.. They made a bunkers decision sacking Steve Walsh who was the DOF at Leicester city when they won the league. The Dutch guy they hired is totally out of his depth. £50M for Richarlson? Lol

tbaba1234:


Lazio is rumored to be interested in Iwobi for 20-25 Million Euros..

Yeah. I read on reddit they are willing to pay 20M Euros which translates to about £15M. They are claiming Iwobi is not in Unai Emry's plans.

edi287:

Heard we're in for Draxler. Dumb move considering there's Lacazette and Aubamayeng to fit in the starting 11.
Should be looking to sign a better CB. Club is driving me nuts I tell you

The club is going all silicon Valley. I heard they signed a candy crush engineer. Lol
But seriously, you guys could be in for an interesting ride this season especially with the back room hires. Almost world class set up if you ask me.
By the way what do you think of Richarlson's transfer to Everton? I heard Everton paid £50M for him. Watford must be laughing all the way to the bank.. Lol

PROVERBZ:
ahmed musa will b sold for 43million and iwobi yo lazio 23

If you had the resources, I mean your personal cash, can you pay 43Million large ones for Ahmad Musa? Be honest.

oloriooko:
we don't have big money moves from our guys abroad which is an indication of the quality of players we parade abroad

It's a shame no Nigerian player will make a $20M move this transfer window.
We simply don't have the materials at this moment. The fans must wake up and smell the coffee.
We are painfully below average.

edi287:
Iwobi linked with a move to Lazio and Wolves

I have a feeling he could be sold to fund a move for an elite winger in the shape of Zaha, Coman or someone like that. This could probably be a clandestine move by the club to sound out to interested buyers. Fingers crossed.

AIG07:
This is beautiful! Just remembered something like this was discussed here 2-3yrs ago.

If well organized, I see it rivaling, masking the NPFL... All that is needed is awareness and they are already taking to social media - one of the most powerful tools.

I like the way they are starting with Federal Schools. Hopefully, it can develop into competitions with tiers that will involve the state and private schools. So that schools like Covenant Universities who can boast of good facilities too can be part of this football change.

Another thing I like about it, is the ZONING(Coastal A, B; Sahel A...). So happy with this atleast they are doing right what the Npfl is doing wrong. This is a positive move in the right direction for our football!

Kudos to the organizers.

You think you won't have some NPFL players, playing as mercenaries for some of these teams?
Schools employ the services of state atheletes to represent them at NUGA games. This is Nigeria... Lol

krattoss:
Certain tau or so from memelodi sounders in South African league made a direct change of transfer to Brighton and hives in EPL..

And coming back home, a certain league winner will be going for trial on one Norwegian third tie league

Tau is a full South African international. I belive he was the guy who put Nigeria's Super Eagles to the sword in Uyo with that infamous second goal. I stand to be corrected.

Icon4s:


I hope you are not one of those accusing Francis Uzoho of age cheating?

I don't know about Uzoho's age, but if you believe he's 19yrs old, good for you meen.

Icon4s:


Yes I know Arabs just like jews are very hairy.

But for an U15 player(maybe he is even 14) to grow such beards. And you easily want to accept.

Issorite...*just passing and whistling away*.

I had goatee and hairy chest at 15 in SS1/SS2. Although that Morrocan boy looks 18 atleast.

N317m to feed the dogs. Sounds cliché.

forgiveness:


All those young talent hoping to go abroad avoid the NPFL like say na leprousy. They prefer to stay in academy to get a club abroad.

For clarity sake, I would like to address this because I have noticed alot of us usually make uninformed statements, passed as facts.

Truth is that NPFL clubs own less than 80% of players in their team. The contracts these clubs sign with players are sometimes laughable. It is very common to see a player signed an 8yr loan deal to a premier league club in Nigeria from a so called "academy".
What happens thereafter is that the player can abandon the club anytime to go on trial abroad when a deal comes up because they are only on "Loan to these teams" . The clubs are usually helpless as most times the players travel without their consent. In other to avoid this, clubs, especially those in the continent confiscate the players passport.

The so called academies are run by agents, most times registered without any presence or even address. Let's stop kidding ourselves we have academies in Nigeria. The only real academy we had was Kwara academy.
An academy is supposed to be run like a boarding school, where players study and play football.
What alot of us mistake as academies are knock about clubs.
Here's a tip on the fraudulent ways players transfer from within Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
The country is a scam empire.

In other cases, the player sold to a foreign club is said to be the property of a non-existent academy and not the club where he had played for one or more seasons.

Such was the case of the transfer involving Chikeluba Ofoedu of Rangers to Turkish club 1461 Trabzon in 2012. Ofoedu played for Rangers between 2011 and 2012 and upon transfer to the Turkish club, he was immediately claimed by Oak Zeel FC of Enugu.

Oak Zeel said they were not aware of the transfer of the player to any foreign club, claiming the right to his transfer fees at the expense of Rangers. The player was claimed to have been loaned to Rangers and Oak Zeel wanted 80 per cent of his transfer fees while Rangers would receive 20 per cent.

Also in August, former Akwa United midfielder Alhassan Ibrahim, popularly called Muazzam, was the subject of a transfer tussle between Akwa and an academy after the player moved from the Uyo club to Austria Wien.

Before the Muazzam transfer, Akwa were also in the middle of a transfer chaos which involved one of their former players, Moses Ebiye, who joined Norwegian side Lillestrom. After a long-drawn battle, the club only got two per cent of the player’s transfer fee with the rest going to an unnamed academy, who also claimed they had loaned him to Akwa.

In the Muazzam case, he was reported by Wien as signed from FC Heart rather than Akwa, where he was since the start of the 2016/17 season. It was reported that the player was loaned to Akwa by the academy.

©Punch news

TheGoodJoe:


Nice one. As I pointed out earlier, the playing turf is a big part of football development. You can not train a team to play good football on bad playing pitches. That is why we resort to overage players in our local league with atrocious long balls.

With better pitches, coaches can take risks with playing good balls and selecting young players who can fit the system and running good play requires. It will also aid in appeal and people turning out to watch the game.

Without good pitches, it will be difficult to produce decent ball playing midfielders and strikers.
This is one of the bane of Nigerian football.
Also, playing on wet natural grass has a way of speeding up the ball thereby improving the general quality of a football match.
Playing on dry surface makes the game slow and boring,which is what you get in the NFL.

tbaba1234:


I understand.

That is where good agents come in. Good agents can get you good clubs for your development. Awaziem's loan move to Nantes has raised his profile in Porto. He is likely to play an important role for Porto next year.

That is the kind of move Nwakali needs. A move that raises his profile whether he makes a career at Arsenal or elsewhere

No two situations are the same. Fortune may have smiled on Awaziem after Nantes missed out on signing their 1st defensive priority. Things like that happen all the time in football.
I said it on thread some weeks back that Nwakali was signed by Porto B, he will have to work his way up.
Best of luck to him.

tbaba1234:


I do not expect Nwakali to move to a big club but he has a good enough profile to get him a good deal in the top flight of Belgium. portugal or even Holland again. Going to play Portuguese 2nd division does not really help him. He needs to be raising the level he is playing at to improve.

Football deals aren't one way traffic. You can only sign what is in front of you. He cannot do an Odemwigie and drive to any club he desired.

AIG07:
I was opportuned to watch the HL of Enyimba's match against WAC at Aba and another CCC match involving a Kenya side Gor Mahia and Young African Stars in Nairobi. If I must confess Enyimba(Nigeria's only rep still in the continental cup) is no where close to the kind of class shown by the three other teams. The pitch in Kenya is far better than the bumpy lawn we call football pitch that Enyimba played on. I was forced to change channel when I could no longer take it in.


I shake my head for my country. Our Management is Zero.

I saw a couple of minutes of the Mamelodi Sundowns game against a club side in Lome, I wept for Nigeria. The quality of the playing turf was about the same standard I saw at the world cup. I can't understand how a municipal stadium in Lome can boast of a better playing surface than the Nigerian national stadium.

The playing surface I saw actually gave credence to what someone who took a team to Togo narrated. The guy said at half time, when his boys were about going to the changing room, sprinklers emerged from the middle of the pitch watering the grass. His boys were so amazed that they couldn't concentrate on his team talk, because they have never seen such a thing in their lifes.
I find it amazing up till now, we still cannot figure out how to grow ordinary grass. Smh

tbaba1234:
I do not understand the rationale of Nwakali going to play second division football for another season. Who advises these players?

We Nigerians must know our place in the food chain with respect to football, especially fans. I think there is a disconnect with our understanding and actually what is on ground.
Let's leave the Nigerian arrogance and insatiable want for all our players to be playing for big clubs for a moment.
Truth is the chances of that happening is very low. A Nigerian born in Nigeria will have to slug it out in the lower reaches and prove himself beyond reasonable doubt before he gets a look in for an average team in the top leagues.

When was the last time a Nigerian transfered to a traditional European heavy weight? I can only recall Taye Taiwo to Ac Milan, Victor Moses and before him Mikel Obi to Chelsea. In between those we haven't produced any body worthy to be signed to the FIRST TEAM of a BIG CLUB ( stress on first team) , yet we think we are a big football country.

You only see a hand full of Nigerians playing in the Uefa Champions league, which after the group stages, you will hardly see any Nigerian player feature apart from Moses at Chelsea. Since Chelsea and Arsenal aren't in the Champions league I doubt we will have a single player in knock out rounds of the champions league this year. I stand to be corrected.

We are simply not as good as we think as far as I'm concerned. The foundation of our football needs to be fixed from scratch.

bengine:


That's why I said he should take the extra control then finish..I hope you do know that ball he missed was barely 10yards out..

We were already complaining about Ighalo b4 this world cup started that he is not proficient in front of goal and he didn't disappoint at all...

With a defender "screening" in front of Ighalo, honestly speaking less than 10% of strikers on parade at this world cup would have scored this. Nigerians just needed an escape goat, for me Rohr should be held responsible.

Icon79:
Huh Is there a rule that I am unaware of that you can't substitute a player who's a sub himself?

And by the way, that's NOT rhetorical question.


O pari

When the player in question is one of your bigger players, the question of respect cannot be over emphasised.

ChrisKels:
Now if u wanna know why other West African leagues have been exporting quality players to Europe compared to the NPFL, watch this match btwn Enyimba and Williamsville of ivory coast. 90percent of the Ivorians look under 20 while almost all the Enyimba players look way beyond their 30s bar Ikouwem Utin Udoh . This match is a match btwn old men and teens. These Williamsville players look like Academy players, they even look younger than Paul Aigbogun's under 20 boys.

Please professional football is not age grade competition. Check the average age of Zamalek, Tp Mazembe, Sundowns. Even outside the shores of Africa, what's the average age of Real Madrid and Barcelona?
Professional teams should have youth teams who are engaged in their designated national or regional championships, not the main team parading an underage team.

Kog45:
Yes Iheanacho would have scored it but the issue is that Iheanacho would not have got those chances cos Ighalo worked for it.

That is the point. Ighalo’s introduction in that game in the second half disturbed the Argentine defenders. Within the first 10 mins of his introduction, he won 3 free kicks. One of which led to the corner that caused the penalty. He would have been a national hero if he had crowned his efforts with a goal.

tbaba1234:


In Importance, probably more important.

The difficulty level required to execute the task was not the same. Only very few players would have scored that goal Ighalo missed under the same circumstance , that's the bitter truth.

Kog45:
At WC i don't blame players much but coaches,too glaring Rohr was bereaved of ideas when it matter most and against Argentina all he needed was bring in fresh Onazi,Ogu or Joel to replace tired Mikel and Etebo and round up the game.

Westerhoff did this against Italy with Oliha and Adepoju to absorb the pressure and if not for Oliseh childish clearance we would have beat Italy.

Rohr need to update himself tactically by getting a quality assistants cos in the next 6 months enough talents for Nigeria national teams and only coach with tactical awareness w be able to handle those boys.

Rohr and Aigbogun have a lot of work to do tactically.

Rohr started getting it wrong in the Argentina game from the personnel he started the game with. Starting Iheanacho was a tactical suicide because the decision cost him valuable substitution slot, having reduced his subs to just 2 by bringing Ighalo on to rectify the error.

If Ighalo had started, Rohr would have had more tactical flexibility and the affirmation to sub him off in the 2nd half for a defensive midfielder to sure up the game. The reason Rohr was cut in a no man's land to bring on subs who will close the game out, was because he couldn't sub Ighalo out who was a sub himself. This was the reason he was helpless at the dugout, knowing Ighalo was one of his biggest players.

tbaba1234:


Ighalo gets most criticism because he is the one that missed crucial chances. Yakubu had a great Nigeria career but many people can not forget his miss against south korea miss.

What is clear to me is that Nigeria needs new strikers. I hope Awoniyi, Sadiq, Dessers etc are given a chance. Ighalo should be gradually eased into international retirement.

Do you honestly think the Ighalo miss is comparable to Yakubu's?

tbaba1234:


I don't think, he is a bad player. I see a lot of good highlights but he has run down his contract a few times without getting better teams. Poor management might be his biggest problem not talent.

That is why I said he was a victim of Nigeria and poor management. He shouldn't have moved from Rangers to Turkish Tigg2 in the first place. Although he had options at Germany and Rosenberg which didn't come through.
I think Rosenberg didn't sign him due to foreign player quota. It is tough being Nigerian.

tbaba1234:


He has been playing in the second tier in Turkey for years and no top Turkish side deemed it fit to sign him all these years.

Could be because he's a bad player.

edi287:

Goldfish80 this is the guy you were talking about

You're correct. The guy is good enough to play at the highest level his talent really deserves. I consider him a victim of the poor Nigerian structure and management. He is the kind of talent that if he was Brazilian, top European clubs would have cut corners to sign him up for silly money at 19yrs old.

Kog45:
To be candid Ighalo failed and Nigerians always look for scapegoat and he fit the bill for missing the two chances.No matter the explanation you put in nobody is ready to listen,remember Ighalo is not popular and he failed woefully to correct that impression when it matter most.I remember seeing him being compared with Lokosa, just to tell you he wasn't rated.

Sir did you see anyone castigating Iheanacho poor playing at WC as Ighalo,that's it.Hope you are hearing Rohr didn't give Iwobi enough playing time whereas the same Iwobi was originally in Nigeria WC XI but a flop against Croatia but guess what he was played out of position as if not the same Iwobi of arsenal.

I remember a lot don't want to see Omeruo in Nigeria team preferring very average Awaziem and overrated Ekong but just too glaring Omeruo is better than the duo and thank God he made the team.

Ekong cost us Croatia match but did yiu see guys pointing this out.First goal he left his man and second goal he wrestled his man and caused the penalty.Good not Omeruo cos a lot would have criticised him with different names calling

I remember many flanks Aina received especially against Congo for the foul he committed which was even outside the box but when my talented Ebuehi committed two glaring penalties against Iceland with one awarded,excuses arised to the point that some put the blame on Omeruo for the foul committed by Ebuehi.

I'm saying this to let you know that sometimes emotions override our football reasonings

Sir I think Rohr just need to change his style of managing the team if he want to succeed as eagle's coach.

Brian Idowu had a very average WC and it brought a question why did Echiejile made the team when Ebuehi came in for Idowu against Iceland when we have a natural LB in Echiejile on the bench then why was Aina dropped.

It would have been better to have young Aina on the bench just like we have Awaziem on the bench,meaning the dropping of Aina and Agu was wrong since Rohr lack confidence in Echiejile and Joel Obi.

I remember saying i hope Simy would not be another Nwofor at WC not doubting his talent but a striker that made WC just cos he had late run in Seria A and 7goals in a season and suddenly turned to a gold that we are looking for meaning something was wrong.

I'm one of Shehu advocates here but pre WC friendlies told us that Ebuehi should be a starter but surprisedly we saw Shehu against Croatia.The same Shehu that failed to exact himself against Argentina, England, Poland,Czech and even Congo.

I thought Rohr would rearranged his team with superlative performance of Ebuehi against Argentina with Aina as back up as RB/RWB cos they are better than makeshift Shehu and put Idowu and Echiejile who Rohr still believe in as LB and pushed Shehu to the midfield since he was even ahead of Agu in the same position in Buraspor and drop Joel but really surprised that Rohr failed to see this simple adaptive changes.

Sir do we need to blame any player?NO but Rohr who failed to identify his XI for WC and this started after our victory against Argentina in a friendly.I told icon4s that Argentina Victory would be our greatest undue and it manifested in series of our friendlies prior to WC.

I thought Rohr would continue with Argentina match XI and do highly tactical changes by replacing player who failed to meet up in subsequent friendlies but against Poland reverse was the case.

It is called selective criticism. As much as Nigerians want to kill Ighalo for the infamous miss, the gospel truth is that the miss against Argentina will not rank inside the top 10 miss of the tournament.
off the top of my head, Lukaku, Thomas Muller, Keane, those Peruvian strikers had more guilt edge misses much more worse than Ighalos.

tbaba1234:


He is Nigerian..


"However, he has now been contacted by the Nigerian Football Federation and has revealed that he will also be eligible for England in two years' time.

'They (Nigeria) have contacted me' Asoro told SVT. 'We will see what happens if I do not get into the A national team in Sweden. I'll probably choose Nigeria.

'England is also a possibility. If I live in England for two more years, I can play for their national team.' "

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4662020/Sunderland-starlet-Asoro-consider-international-future.html

He was hotly chased by Tottenham before signing for Swansea, a move which could be the best for his development as he will get decent playing time for the promotion contenders.
He is highly rated in England.

tbaba1234:
Looks like Chelsea wants to offload Tammy Abraham with Bristol City as a likely destination.

That's his level to be honest.

ChrisKels:


Lol so where are they now? They were mostly 24 and below in 2014, so what happened? Nobody dey hear of dem again abi dem dey hibernate

They served and won laurels for their country. What's my business with where they are? If the authorities who managed Nigerian football were doing the business well, they would all have been in Nigeria adding value to the game back home like the Brazilians and Argentines.