₦airaland Forum

Arsenal fans on Nairaland thrives on fake beliefs.
U have not been able to answer the one-million dollar question.
Why has Henry not been able to win the golden boot in other competitons apart from the Premiership?
RVN has won it in the dutch league, the premiership and the champions league.
Luiz Ronaldo of Brazil has won it in the la liga with Real Madrid in 2003/04 and in Barcelona(34 goals in 37 games) and in the dutch league and at the world cup.
He has even won it in the confederations cup and copa america. These are tested strikers that have scored great goals in all competitions.
Ronaldo or Ruud never complained that the team wasn't built around 'em. Those r just excuses of a spoilt child.
A good striker will prove his worth anywhere on God's green earth but Henry hasn't done that to my satisfaction.
Lemme remind u that Henry hasn't scored in the world cup for 8 solid years. Is that a striker to be reckoned with?
Please mention RVN, Ronaldo, Shevchenko, Etoo before u mention Henry.
End of story.

Thanx hugoboi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How can some peopz be so myopic to judge Henry based on what he does at the Premiership alone?
English Premiership is well organised but its very weak technically. The gap between the top 3 teams(Arsenal Chelsea and Man U) and the others is just too wide and it makes it so predictable.

Henry has never won the golden boots at UEFA champions league ever before and they think he is the best in the world.
I feel sorry for the gooners.
RVN, Luiz Ronaldo, Morientes, Sheva and Etoo are better than Henry.
What was Henry's pedigree before he joined Arsenal?
A woeful 3 goals in 28 games for Juventus and a disappointing 28 goals in 141 games for AS Monaco.
Henry is too over-rated especially by Nigerian Arsenal fans

@ Akola,
Serbia is a very good team but they are always going to lose against a rampaging Argentina side.
I have posted even before the world cup that i tip the Argies and the Italians to lift the cup.
The Argies were just too good and u were the one that said the Ivoiriens played better than Argentina and that u don't see anything special in Riquelme.
I watched a very hungry Argentine side full of vigour and energy.
Roberto Ayala and Gabriel Heinze were too immense and the balance in this team is just commendable.
Who will stop this team? Maybe Brazil or the attack-minded Holland? I dunno
What i can assure everyone is this Argentine team will take some stopping.
Serbia's goalie will have nightmares of Argentine's strikers running at him for months.
Messi + Tevez + Crespo + Saviola(ALL IN FORM)=THE WORLD CUP.

@ Kitaun,
Its obvious u just started watching soccer.
Oleg Salenko is a great striker and the 5 goals he scored against Cameroon was not a fluke.
He might not be popular cos his career was short-lived but ardent football fans can never forget this Russian lad.
The same Oleg Salenko u don't know was the highest goal scorer at Saudi '89.
This competition also had Mutiu Adepoju, Sonny Anderson and Joao Pinto so he has got pedigree.


@ nightrider,
I know you're eating back your words on Messi and Tevez now.
Can u now see what i meant by big match players?
Tevez and Messi came in as substitutes and scored mouth-watering goals.

If Fernando Torres plays for Chelsea or Man Utd he will hit more goals than he does for Athletico Madrid.
I doubt if Henry will score 10 goals in a season at Athletico Madrid or Celta Vigo.

Shevchenko is not even in the same class as Henry. Andriy is way beyond Henry because this is a striker that has got everything in him.
He is a complete striker and he is way skillful than Thierry. How many times has Henry scored with his head?
The UEFA champions league all time leading scorer is no joke and he has proven himself in a tough Serie A league.
Henry scoring more than 20 goals in 5 consecutive season in the English League is impressive but not a yardstick.
He hasnt been able to transform that form outside the Premiership because the Premiership is a very weak league.
A football league where Arsenal went 49 unbeaten for a whole season smells of weakness and fraility.
No team can ever go unbeaten in La Liga or Serie A. I will adjudge Henry the best striker if he wins the golden boot in either UEFA for one season or this world Cup.
Anything asides that is unacceptable. I will never judge a striker the best in the world based on the domestic league alone.
U people need to broaden your scope about Henry. Where else has Henry won the golden boot apart from the Premiership?
RVN has won it in the dutch league,premiership and even UEFA thrice in the last 5 seasons(2002,2003 and 2005). Thatz who i call a complete predator and not a dud Henry.
BTW,can u compare Ruud's goal ratio to Henry?
Ruud has notched 150 goals for Man U in 218 goals(0.69)
Henry has notched 214 goals in 342 games for Arsenal(0.63)
Please tell me,who is the greatest?

One thing i despise about Arsenal fans is the pretentious way they see things.

@ Babwilms & GUNNER.
The hatrick against inter milan is the only one i can remember out of over 90 champions league games Henry has played.
In fact,that has been the only game Henry really showed his class outside Premiershipin almost 7 years.
The goal against Real Madrid is just a goal. It wasn't as if Henry showed an individual display of class. He only scored a goal.

@ Mochafella,
Did u say Henry was the best U-21 player to feature in France 98 asides Owen?
What abt Denilson, RAUL,Zenden,Ronaldo,Gianluca Buffon, Morientes, Kluivert, Seedorf,Nakata?
Its obvious ur comments r biased.
Henry didn't measure up to these players at the world cup.

@ nightrider,
I can mention 5 strikers better than Henry at the moment.
*Luca Toni(scoring 31 goals for  a club like Fiorentina in Serie A is no child's play)
Samuel Etoo.
Tevez
Lionel Messi
Shevchenko
Adriano
David Villa
Fernando Torres
Klass-Jan Huntelaar

WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ma pals in lagos told me ESPN shows this match.
Dont u have ESPN on your DSTV?
Americans watch it on ESPN.
Its free in the UK thanx to BBC and ITV1 and UK Gold TV.
Someone even said its free in Gambia and Iraq
Where does twinstaiye stay? Afghanistan?

@Babwilms,
Exactly my point!!!!!!!!!
How can a player score 30 goals in a season and cannot make a reasonable impact in other competitons?
Thatz what makes him so FAKE.
France 98, EURO 2004, UEFA champions league? I am tired of excuses about him not being used to roam around or build a team around him.
How can u build a team around a dud player when u have the likes of Zidane in France?
Zidane rose to the occasion against England at EURO 2004 and his brilliance won the game for France.
Please. tell me how many times u have seen Henry with such individual quality to change a game outside the Premiership?
A good player will always produce quality home and away.
Ronaldinho, Luiz Ronaldo, Luis Figo and even Rasheed Yekini are living examples of big match players.
I am sorry to say Henry does not belong  to this category!

Someone said Henry scored 3 goals at France 98 but he forgot to mention those goals were against lowly rated South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
Agahowa would have scored a hatrick against these mediocre teams so thatz bullshiit.
Peter Crouch scored a hatrick against Jamaica. Does that make him good?
Henry went to Korea in 2002 and he didn't score a single goal and he finished that same season with 24 goals in the Premiership.
Whatz the correlation? We all saw his shambolic performance at the finals of the Champions League against Barca.
He squandered 3 great chances that would have won the game for the gunners.
Letz call a spade a spade,Henry develops cold feet at the big stage.

WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To every arsenal fan, all their players r the best.
What a schmuk!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have all seen how Ashley Cole has been nut-megged times without number and an average gunner will tell u he is the best left back in tha world.

@ Kitaun,
Obviously,Henry is the best striker in Arsenal. That is where he can only run up the pitch like a hare and score.
In big matches, he is a bum!
France is going nowhere in this tournament.
The only thing the Frenchies know how to do is to argue with Zidane.
Saha should start ahead of Henry in the next match.

Whoop ma ass?
10 zillion kitauns can't move me, let alone whoop ma ass.
Dont make this ugly.
Nairalanders will tell u i am like a time-bomb waiting/poised to blow up.
Trust me, i will rip, cut, damage and demolish ur tissues, ligaments and blood vessels.

@ Grizzly,
The English fans will be absolutely gutted if Rooney does not play.
I saw some video clips of 'em die-hard fans in Germany singing all thru the night around England's team hotel.
They were screamin ROONEY ROONEY ROONEY.
Rooney's appearance will def'ly spur other players to their best cos Wayne has suddenly found himself to be England's inspiration.

@ otolorin,
I deliberately said 5th because Arsenal surely robbed Tottenham of the 4th place position.
White Hart lane fans are still furious of Wenger's magic that poisoned the food of their darling team.


Henry's under-performance is not a coaching problem.
The dude himself is the problem as it was evident in the UEFA finals against Barcelona.
Henry was absolutely missing and he squandered all the chances presented to him on a platter of gold.
Was Wenger not the manager that took Arsenal to that match?
It's high time we call a spade a spade.
Henry is fake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ Grizzly,
They gast to expect so much from these lads.
The English fans believe this is the best team the country has been able to assemble since the world cup in 1966.
England has the best set of defenders in the world cup and if the midfield can gel and link the play then England has a chance if their path to the Final can evade Brazil and Argentina.

England can also win if they can get the wonder-kid up and running asap.
Only Rooney can do it for England.
No Rooney-No England.
Its as simple as that.

@ hippie,
I can authoritatively tell u now that Michael Ballack is now Chelsea's property.
He used to play for Bayern Munich but thats history now.
Ballack will be wearing blue for now---thanx to the new Roman Empire.

Phillip Lahm(Bayern Munich) might also be on his way to Chelsea while u r still wondering about Ballack's transfer.
English language now happens to be the excuse of this sudden migration to England.---thanx again to the Roman Empire.

@otolorin,
I will implore u to always check your facts before u mis-inform fellow Nairalanders.
Highbury has the smallest playing area in the whole wide world. I believe all football fans know this fact except u.
There's nuthing FIFA or English FA can do about this because the English people thrives on tradition and the FA ain't going to build a stadium for Arsenal.
Anfield and Old Trafford are about 20-30 yards longer than the garden(Highbury).

Henry has been consistently inconsistent and he is a complete country zero.
U can bet Henry's always going to scuff it on big matchdays.
There's nuthing Wenger can do with France if he is the manager unless Wenger has to convert all the Spaniards and African players to French citizens.
Besides,with all Wenger's acclaimed wizardry,he could only finish 5th on the domestic league.

@ Priscilla
Tunisians have so far been the best to represent Africa in this tournament and all the credits should go to their astute manager,Roger Lemerre.
The only African team that plays pure european football with loads of discipline and they never relented until the final whistle.
Ivory Coast and Ghana have been the most disappointing cos i expect more from 'em than the Togolese and Angolans.
Tunisia all the way. A very balanced side and i am sure they will give the Spaniards a run for their money.

Henry has no excuses.
He is just a hump of bullsh*t.
When was the last time Nigeria played all these countries u mentioned and there was no victor?
France will struggle again in this world cup cos they r simply not good enough.
Tha major culprits are Henry and Vieira. They have been a shadow of 'emselves.

Henry is just a mediocre and he panics when it gets to the big stage.
He is not a big match player and he will never be. UEFA, EURO Cup and now the World Cup??
All the talks about the way Domenech uses him to operate is just an endless stream of pretentious bullshiit.
Henry has now played under 3-4 coaches in France. Are u saying all these managers don't know how to use Henry to the best of his potentials?
Aime Jacquet, Roger Lemerre, Jacques Santini and Raymond Domenech CANNOT be wrong with their tactics.
World Cup teams are not Norwich, West Brom FC and Sunderland.

Its a shame!
I think FIFA should start using the world rankings to pick the 24 teams that will make it to the world cup.
Some teams are just too shambolic to be making the World Cup.

@ toshman,
U were disappointed in Brazil because we always expect too much from Brazil.
Everyone feels Brazil must wallop any team 3-0, 6-0, and 10-0 but football aint always like that.
U must understand the Croats are also a formidable force to reckon with and it took a moment of brilliance from Kaka to seperate the 2 sides.
Brazil still won against all odds and the 3 points gained is very vital.
If Brazil did disappoint u what will u say about France? I am sure u will be gutted n knackered that a team of that high standard could not tame Switzerland.
Henry said its a jinx and said its the same scenario with Sweden and England. They always cancel each other out.
What an excuse.

@ Hot-angel,
Saying someone is "fat" is quite offensive.
Simply say---------- "he is on the big side".
Aiiiiiight?

How powerful?
What examples are u talking about?

That Abiola had always been the Chief Sponsor of all the major coup d'etats in Nigeria?
How powerful can one get when u sponsor ur friends to stage coups and take-over the government?

The same goes for Abrahamovic. He is a friend of the government and he was allowed to leave Russia with his loot on the agreement he will not meddle and take part in the Russia's politics. He co-operated with Putin's government and he has been re-appointed as the Governor of Chukokta in Russia.

I dunno what u really wanna hear but these men are simply "friends of every government" in their respective countries.

@ Akola,
Haa,Haa
I still saw some crisp football in the Nigerian team @ Nigeria/Ghana 2000.
In fact, i believe that was the best Super Eagles team ever assembled.
U cannot compare that team to this present Cote D'Ivoire team that are too timid to face a big side.

Back to your questions.

Nigeria played with experience against Argentina. I can remember Siasia drew the first blood and then Maradona(the genius) started his antics,dives and trickeries. Canniggia's goal shouldn't have been allowed to stand but the referee was always against us. Nigeria was better technically but Maradona's trickery got Argentina the victory.

The match against Italy was a classic. Although, i quite agree with u that inexperience played some minor parts but Nigeria lost that game majorly because of Amokachi's and Amuneke's injuries. The Italians were very clever to discover that the duo were the engine room of the Nigerian team.
Nigerian fans didn't notice the effects of their absence on the pitch because Nigeria was leading 1-0 plus JayJay was having a field day and all seems to be good.
The effects dawned on us when Baggio equalised and we realised we couldn't look up to anyone to score for us.
Yekini was all alone as there was no support from his team-mates. Eguavoen got jittery and he got the Azzurris a penalty that gave the Italians the day.
It was a case of grab-n-smash daylight robbery.

Eagles team at USA 94 were talented and skillful and they had eyes for goal compared to this buncha Elephants.
At least, our own inexperience took Nigeria to the top in a group where u have Argentina and Bulgaria. I will stop complaining if the Ivoiriens can do the same with their inexperience. Let 'em top their group and make it to the round of 16.

@ Prisccy,
Did u say bright side?
I am sure u think Ghana will beat Czech Republic.
Ghana played well but i am afraid their best wasn't good for the Italians who looked more dangerous.
Luca Toni was too awesome and i can understand why he scored 31 goals in serie A.

U ain't seen anything yet.
Hiddink took Holland to the S/finals in France 98 and took South Korea to the S/finals in 2002.
He is a master-tactician and the Aussies might just be the surprise team of the world cup.

@ Akola,
How do u know?
Arsenal fans will say Rosicky is unknown and that Wenger modified him to be a good player.
Don't be surprised some of em will still come here and say Wenger taught him how to score the 2 goals he scored against USA.
Every good player in Arsenal was Wenger's handi-work as far as any Gooner is concerned.
Buncha hypocrites.


I think i have a grudging respect for the Czech team. This team might surprise Brazil if they can get their acts together.
The Czech team has been the most balanced and the most impressive with their brand of football.

@ Akola,
I watched the programme live on ITV1 with Okocha donning a suit and an afro hair-style. What do u expect an African player to say?
U need to see what Marcel Desailly said last night when Ghana lost to Italy. He supported Ghana all the way and he was so sad he couldn't even hide his disappointment in the African side.

I dont really see the Ivoiriens picking any point in this group. I remembered Okocha saying the Ivoiriens are very unlucky to be in that group. I can assure u Brazil cannot run away with 9 points had they been in Group C.
Holland will do more damage to the Africans and the Serbs won't allow any goal past their defence so the best the African side can get is a goalless draw.

Why y'all guys think the Ivoiriens are good still beats me. How can u be so optimistic about a losing team?
Can u compare the Senegalese dominance at the last world cup to the Ivoiriens of this tournament?
The Ivoiriens lack self-belief and losing ur 1st match as a debutant will do more damage than good to any African side.
An experienced Nigerian team never recovered after losing to Argentina in the last world cup, let alone Ivory Coast(a debutant)

Robben wont enjoy such luxury against an experienced team.
Gabriel Heinze and Roberto Ayala aint push-overs as we saw against the Ivoiriens.
Heinze nearly killed Drogba at a point with ferocious tackles and kicks and Ayala was also a solid-rock on the right hand side of the defence.

Marco Van Basten will caution Robben to get more involved as a team player than an individual bunch of skills.
I was also expecting Cristiano Ronaldo to do the same but i think he has improved his own game a bit. No more annoying step-overs and he crosses the ball when necessary.
This group is the main catch and i can't wait to see the Argy's taking their pound of flesh back from the Dutch after that historic Q/final match at France 98 where Ortega's red-card won the match for Holland.
It will def'ly be a mouth-watering tie.

@ Prisccy,
I just saw the Aussies sinking the Japanese with an emphatic win 3-1.
One thing i can assure u is Guus Hiddink(The Australian Manager) is an achiever.
He wont give up in that group without a fight. I know Brazil owns the #1 spot in that group but the 2nd position is up for grabs and i tip the Aussies to claim tha spot.
Tim Cahill was the star of the day despite his knee problems. He blew the Japanese apart with some deft touches and scored the most audacious goal yet scored by any debutant in Germany.

I just can't believe the impact the Premiership players are making in Germany.
The league has produced the highest number of players at the World Cup by miles.
Arsenal and Chelsea leads the table by supplying 16 players each to the world cup
Man Utd is 2nd with 13 players.(Scholes retired, Smith is crocked and Wes Brown cldn't make it because of one injury or the other).

@ Grizzly,
I felt i was the only that noticed Arjen Robben's selfishness.
He wldn't pass the ball to his other strike partners and he made Van Persie and Ruud look like bums on the pitch.
The Chelsea dude forgot he wasn't the only striker and he was taking shots at goal instead of passing the ball to his partners.
Marco Van Basten would have noticed this and i hope he cautions him because they got some ugly games ahead of em.
Argentina and Ivory Coast will be tough but i expect Holland to bludgeon Ivory Coast who came to Germany to disgrace Africa.
Holland and Argentina will prolly cancel each other out and settle for a draw.


@ Prisccy,
I will reply your last comment after the group stages are over.
If u think Drogba and mates did well then i am gon' reserve ma comments.
Its obvious u didnt see the last world cup in Korea/Japan and the previous in France 98 because u would have knwn the difference between the countries that represented Africa in the past and the wannabes that r representing now.

I knw every damn thang about Roman's powerfulness. How he was orphaned as a child and dropped out of college.
He made his fortune in a series of controversial oil-export deals and he made it big around the mid-90s when he teamed up with Boris Berezovsky to take over an oil giant company called Sibneft.
Berezovsky fled Russia in year 2000 to escape fraud charges and he sold his shares to Abarahamovic and the rest is history.
Roman Abarahamovic is now a friend of the government and was re-appointed the governor of Chukokta last year.
His wealth was more politically-rooted than his sweats and some school of thoughts think he might still be **brought to book if another government takes over in Russia.


**Berezovsky was one of the closest member of Boris Yeltsin(Ex-President of Russia) but fell out of favour when Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000. Roman might also find himself in this scenario should another President come into power. Berezovsky was granted a political asylum in the UK and he's not been able to go back to his native land.



Roman Abrahamovic is quite different from Abiola in terms of dissipating these funds lavishly.
Roman is just changing his dirty money(oil-money) into cool money fast before the arms of the law catch up with him.
Abiola on the other hand spent his money because of his own passion for the game and sports in general.
Remember Abiola was the chief pillar of sports in Africa. I don't know anywhere else Roman supports football or sports in Europe apart from the rumours that he has some percentage of shares at CSKA Moscow in Russia