₦airaland Forum

forgiveness:
Hahahahahah! This guy think say na only rope be Elephant after touching it.

Give 5 blind men from birth their views after touching an Elephant. They will come back with different views.

You know this and you prefer to put every different view down to foul play or "egunje" and not the possibility that others may not see things the way you do

forgiveness:
Onyekuru is definitely going to make the team. Rohr's body language tells it all.

Good. It means Kayode also stands a chance, since those not playing now can still make the team

forgiveness:
Only in Nigeria this your philosophy works.

Go to other countries they use their best players to build best teams.

Can you please give me just 5 examples of top 5 teams in the world without their best players not playing for the national team.

Concerning the bolded, It is basic management principle....that is why leaders move around with their own trusted hands (from Coaches to C-suite executives). By the way, I don't live in Nigeria.

As to your challenge of naming 5 players, my response is I cant. Not because it defeats my point, but because I couldn't name more than two key players from each top team in the world. I am simply not into football that much anymore but I will cite examples from past word cup winning teams.

Aime Jacquet dropped Ginola and Cantona from his team when he took over the national team. No one who went to Euro 96 or France 98 was better in the positions these guys played. However, the team was better for it.

Romario was performing way better than Ronaldo, leading up to the 2002 WC and would have been the choice of many for the World Cup. However Scolari decided not to take him to the world cup. See this quote from Zagallo - the man who took Brazil to France 98.

"Each coach has his philosophy of work, but I would have summoned Romario," he said. "I think that his performances with Vasco da Gama mean he should have gone to Asia. "But Scolari made his choice. I respect Scolari's ideas and will be a fan cheering for success. Brazil can only grow."

Lastly, Keshi dropped Osaze, Martins and Nsofor from AFCON 2013. None of the strikers he called had a better pedigree than these three except IK Uche who was turned out to be the player with the worst returns of our forwards in the tournament.

Lest we forget, the Coach's job is to assemble the best team to prosecute HIS plan, not the best players in every position. It is his prerogative to decide on formation, tactics and the right mix of players to deploy and no two people will deploy the same resources and tactics, otherwise football will be too predictable and there may no longer be need for human coaches in which case, we would find a robot which will collate all the stats available to assemble a team.

forgiveness:
Same goes for Kelechi, Onyekuru, Aweriam etcetera who just got new teams yet were called.

How do you explain Onyekuru's treatment. His experience in the National hasn't been different from Kayode's. Is it also due to foul play that he has been excluded?

safarigirl:
you can stretch your hand.

I will not condemn myself to another insult from TheSuperNerd, I am yet to recover from the first one.

Abeg no vex madam. It seems like the mention of TheSuperNerd activates a switch in you that gets you angry. The guy is a friend who has stood up for you a number of times and I don't recollect him using any words that could be generally termed as "insulting" on you in this "saga". He is a great guy and please let's not see his starting a thread as a deliberate attempt to bring this one down. He was always bound to do that as he clearly has a passion for Nigerian football. His enthusiasm is commendable (though I must say some o us who witnessed the birthing of the golden era from 1993-1999, will always apply caution for good reason) and that passion will push him to return here in due course. I also think we shouldn't discourage people from contributing to his thread if they so wish. It is not a competition. Let's move past this please...

kellycute:
maybe you are jealous of Thesupernerd dude.. it is you against him all the time even when it doesn't concern you. Hmm Na wa o. Abeg cut the guy some slack.

Jealous of what abeg?

Wetin we no go read for here

emeka1101:
As I said Ghana has hosted more AFCON than any AFRICAN country.
Which means they can host this CHAN or whatever.
Stop being dumb.

Someone who you havent met before is the one you are calling dumb...continue because we now understand your point better

TheGoodJoe:
TheSuperNerd has no right to open another thread. This is the lowest he can go because the dynamics of this thread goes back to years. He is trying to kill the sequence of the thread, which is very wrong.

I will not lie, I am highly disappointed in him. What is so difficult in coming back.

Imagine me running to create another thread when someone says I must be sharing a bed with Guardiola (Wa Lai that one pained me) or when people talk of drills.

Banters happen. One went to far. Having a tough skin and control is part of what has kept this thread civil.

Or, does he think there will be no fallouts on his golden thread.

Please, let us get back to football. Like when Onyekuru will score a hattrick for Anderlecht.

No issues with him opening as many thread as he wants, particularly if it is about something he is passionate about. It may have been in the works for a while and his experience yesterday just served as a catalyst. He will get back and probably drop comments here occasionally as well

tbaba1234:
To be honest, i did not read most of the argument and insults, still haven't.... When some discussions arise, i just gloss over them and read more important conversations/comments.

I did not know, names were called till i read your comment and Thesupernerd's response. Several people stay out of arguments because sometimes when you try to comment, you get entangled. Just like he seemed to attack you.

Perhaps, people take online activity too seriously. Come, discuss football, argue and move on.

Words of wisdom.

Many people here will never meet themselves outside of this forum and that by itself gives people the liberty to type things they can never say or do in real life. Person even fit insult him papa or oga for here and get away with it. Why take it seriously like your life depends on it?

Icon79:
Yeah right! Trust me, any one of Algeria, Cameroun or Zambia would trash Scotland .... if not England sef

When was the last time England defeated an African team?


O pari

o pari master. No African team has ever beaten England o

forgiveness:
He is now ready because he currently playing in the more physical championship.

Agbo and Awaziem don't have a claim to a shirt in the National team. They are not even considered part of the team yet.

They must fight for the position alongside Tiago Ilori, Jordan Torunarigha, Felix Uduokhai and Brian Idowu.

So if you were the coach, you will invite every central defender there is to test them before you make your final list? How much playing time would you need to fully assess each player? how many matches would you need to set up? Na so all the other coaches dey do am?

forgiveness:
When you read the @bolded you should know he is the initiator of goal post shifting, and I answered him according to the way he put it.

You started with the experience angle. How do you define experience? Number of games played?

komekn:
Your question is pregnant with hidden meanings.

So I really don't know what to say?

Full birthing of the question below:

terzurum5:
You want Komekn to agree with you that those guys disclosed their real ages right?

Dey there now, you go soon grow bear bear

Right. The question stems from komekn's reluctance to accept that significant improvements have been made with our youth football with regards to players declaration of their real ages. The era of football age-cheating at an institutional scale is gone. I actually believe that the authorities are even over-correcting by disqualifying legitimate players and declaring them "too old" as posted a couple of weeks ago on this thread

@komekn, what says you about the ages of the boys in the picture above?

7inches:
Dude dont say that.. if u play for a draw in uyo that would be u might lose the ticket.

Remember zambia last match would be at thier home against Cameroon... and we are going way to algeria....
And camoroun Have lost the ticket already.
Have u have the tought of cameroun fixing the match and allow zambia score 6 gaols or more?
Just to beef NIGERIA.. or even money might change hands between them...
u know cameroun they are not happy with us becoz we are the main cause of their goin out in d competition.

Only a win against zambia is the option.
No chance for a dra pls

I like how we always accuse our opponents of match fixing. So money cannot change hands between Nigeria and Algeria abi? or Algeria cannot beef Zambia because the beat them over two legs?

PDPGuy:
According to the laws of the game, if the attacking player receives the ball when he is closer to the goal than the 2nd to last opponent, the attacking player is in an offside position.

Yes, a Cameroonian defender was level with Ighalo, but Ighalo was ahead of every other Cameroonian player (including the goal keeper) when he received the pass. Goalkeepers, on very rare occasions, could inadvertently set offside traps. The Assistant referee, yesterday, did us a big favor.

You can watch the 2010 WC game between South Africa and Mexico to see how a South African 'goal' was ruled out for offside.

Ighalo wasn't ahead of the goalkeeper, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to reach the ball before him. Also, there were two other Cameroonian defenders on the line

forgiveness:
If you claim there's no nepotism in the National team, you can ask Amokachi. He was there and confessed oh ha!

In this light, at least drew my postulations and assertions to state my comments,and besides NFF is public office, therefore not immune or exempted from public criticism.


However, it's vividly clear that chance and opportunity happens to those in the National team. It's not necessary because they are the best talent in the whole Nigeria. This is because we can see when see many players doing exceptional well in Europe despite been ignored by the National team selector.

In short, they doing better than all we raised so far.

@forgiveness, always blowing things out of proportion to support your narrative.

First of all, Amokachi's claim was that people paid cash to play. That is not nepotism.

On "chance and opportunity happening to those in the National team", there is no occupation or nation in the world where this is not the case. Even in the corporate world in the most advanced countries, opportunity will have to be seized and not necessarily by the best people. The question to ask is "are they are good enough"?. David villa has been invited back to the Spanish national team. Are there no better strikers in the whole of spain? is that also Nepotism? Mutiu Adepoju made the 2002 world cup team list. What did he do to merit that place? It suits you to always highlight the isolated negatives to justify your view point. What you end up doing is poisoning people's minds. You are doing more to stoke the fire of tribalism than those you are accusing

Joebie:
Yes labelling is constant with us. I was nearly labelled as someone who only canvasses for old and "finished players".. lol.. So I guess we all have been at the receiving end.
Trying to understand why someone makes a statements first, listening to their reasons, and countering it with points is a better way to go.. The problem sometimes is people get so mad when someone has an opinion very different from theirs. we need to cool down. There will always be diverse views as long as we are living on this planet. And we can only learn when we try to understand where the person is coming from, also considering that many people are not particularly good at expressing themselves. So it calls for patience while discussing. No be fight.

I couldn't agree more, Joebie. I am also waiting for the accusation that will be made against the new goalkeeper trainer if Akpeyi starts the next match, considering that the "tribalism" tag can will not exactly fit

Petrobros:
Tell forgiveness also to forget tribe, tribe, tribe and sectionalism when making his assumptions and accusations.

@Petrobas, you seem so fixated in labeling me a defender of forgiveness that you completely missed the post below where I called him out.

@forgiveness, it is unfortunate that the lens through which you view matters is this jaundiced. Does this make you a “tribalist”? I say No? Does this keep you from having a constructive argument? I think so.

If Rohr was an Igbo man, you would have accused him of tribalism. If he was a Yoruba man, tribalism wouldn’t fit the tag, hence the appropriate label will be that his selections are for pecuniary gains. Now that Rohr is not a Nigerian and it is clear that he is not here for the money, you needed to find another label to tag him.

This approach to explaining other people’s actions which are at odds with your world view will keep you from seeing the best in other people and further help you assess and reshape your own thinking. To the hammer, every problem seems like a nail. I have learnt to ignore many of your accusations, at the same time learning from you as well. One thing you fail to realize is that the human heart has reasons that reason cannot comprehend and it has nothing to do with tribalism. The yorubas will say “Differences in human preference is the reason why two brothers would not desire the same woman”. As someone who claims to throw facts around, please desist from making strong accusations without verifiable proof. And by proof, I mean things you are sure of and not hearsay

Petrobros:
He is pointing accusing fingers at the NFF as favoring people from a particular ethnic group and you expect people from that group to ignore those baseless allegations?

I am not Igbo neither are Joebie and TheGoodJoe you are praising for not accusing him of tribalism. It is only natural for one to react when his race or ethnic group is spoken of in the wrong light except if the person is a bastard.

Let's assume the case is switched and someone from the South East is doing what forgiveness is doing. I am sure you won't take the position you are taking here.

This thread has lost it.

There you go...tribe, tribe, tribe ...

You are entitled to your assumption though and I respect that.

To everyone else, please get off your high horses and stop pretending that the same syndrome doesn’t afflict you. We are witnesses of how others have accused fellow forumites of what they are not simply because they disagree. Examples of this abound and include the following

1. Criticize KC – Tag him a Kelechi hater (if they are not igbo, use the tribalist tag)
2. Criticize Awoniyi, Success and Manu crew – You hate Nigeria
3. Criticize the local league – You hate the local league
4. Measure Nigerian player using global standards – You are not patriotic
5. Pep doesn’t start KC and other black players - Pep is a racist

There is beauty in diversity of thought and opinion and we should celebrate that. I cringed the other day when komekn was accused of being unpatriotic simply because he rates Nigerian players like any non-Nigerian would. Same way politicians in power label the opposition

Petrobros:
And who else has been the one labeling the NFF and Coaches of Tribalism and bribery? And in addition cultism?

I have addressed this above

@forgiveness, it is unfortunate that the lens through which you view matters is this jaundiced. Does this make you a “tribalist”? I say No? Does this keep you from having a constructive argument? I think so.

If Rohr was an Igbo man, you would have accused him of tribalism. If he was a Yoruba man, tribalism wouldn’t fit the tag, hence the appropriate label will be that his selections are for pecuniary gains. Now that Rohr is not a Nigerian and it is clear that he is not here for the money, you needed to find another label to tag him.

This approach to explaining other people’s actions which are at odds with your world view will keep you from seeing the best in other people and further help you assess and reshape your own thinking. To the hammer, every problem seems like a nail. I have learnt to ignore many of your accusations, at the same time learning from you as well. One thing you fail to realize is that the human heart has reasons that reason cannot comprehend and it has nothing to do with tribalism. The yorubas will say “Differences in human preference is the reason why two brothers would not desire the same woman”. As someone who claims to throw facts around, please desist from making strong accusations without verifiable proof. And by proof, I mean things you are sure of and not hearsay

As I read through the recent posts on this thread, I could not help but shake my head due to the various accusations and counter accusations on this thread. The same syndrome is affecting both sides. People like Joebie and TheGoodJoe have been able to challenge forgiveness without resorting to name calling. One of the signs of intellectual laziness and the greatest hurdle to development we as a people have always faced is that people cannot disagree without resorting to name calling - as if tagging them makes the issues raised to disappear. It is the case that once a person cannot fathom the reason why someone else holds a different opinion, they find easy labels to use to tag them, thinking that somehow de-legitimizes their point of view. The common labels I have come to see used over the years are tribalism and bribery. What accusation is made depends on whether the parties involved are from the same ethnic background. If this is the case, the former accusation is made, if otherwise then the later is used

sixtuschimere:
An Akwa Ibom son, Abasiodiong Jackson on July 11,2017 graduated with a First Class in Electronic Engineering from the prestigious University of Huddersfield,  West Yorkshire, England.

Prestigious? Nigerian bloggers with low self worth. Does the image of the school need to be burnished this much in order to validate his achievement?

Wondering why his destination was not any of the blue chip firms known for coming to campus to recruit graduates, if the school was that prestigious

Many Congratulations on your achievement Abasiodiong! Don't let these bloggers staunt your ambition with this mediocre praise!

Joebie:
IN your dreams. This is U20

Iheanacho's claim to fame until a year ago was the U17 player of the tournament award. I will say U21 award is more indicative of quality. Dont you agree?

Congratulations to England.

For those who form opinions on players based on what some posters write here, you are on your own oh! Better to take in both sides, take time out to watch this player with your korokoro eyes and make your judgment. It took me watching 3 mins of highlights of the England vs Italy game for me to know the Solanke is a special player. Going by comments on this thread, I wrote this guy off completely. Forgiveness, please forgive my secret thoughts that you have been unreasonable in suggesting that this dude should be given a look in by our handlers and also my secret glee when he wasn't banging in the goals to the extent that I was thinking you were making excuses when someone pointed it out earlier that he had been average and you responded by asking what position he was playing. Knowing that players usually win the player of the tournament award based on performances in the knock out stages, I wasn't surprised by this award.

Performances of players at the U21 level is more indicative of quality that U17, since these players are mostly young professionals and not academy players.

Biases will always exist and we would always speak for our favorites. However, let's not denigrate someone else's favorite to make ours look outstanding.

Shout out to goldfish as well, who also does a good job of bringing alternative narratives to light in the face of strong opposition. Please we need more of that balance.

I preface my comment by saying I am not someone who understands tactical formations. I however have an observation on Nigeria's perfomances in the past using the 4-3-3 formation.

I have never understood why coaches try to shoehorn the Super Eagles into this formation that has never brought out the best in our teams. The golden era of our football saw us thrive with playing 2 at the front. We had a Yekini/Amokachi, Yekini/ Siasia, Kanu/Amokachi pairing at different times. I also observed that Keshi's team did well with playing Emenike/Ideye in front at Afcon 2013. Keshi appeared to have experimented with 4-3-3 prior to the quarter finals and the team barely scaled through our group. We were more devastating when he reverted to using two men upfront resulting in Nigeria breezing through the rest of our matches. For some reason, even he didn't stick with his winning formula with the exception of he match against Italy where he used Ameobi / Dike combo to devastating effect.

My belief is that teams should be allowed to play to their strengths irrespective of whatever formation is in vogue. Conte rejigged his tea to play to Chelsea's strength and all of a sudden 3-4-3 looks romantic even though its been around forever. Ranieri did the same with Leicester two seasons ago using 4-4-2, only for him to tinker with the team last season to disastrous effect

Haha, people coming out to defend their favorites and lay blame on players they dont like as usual. I imagine how much stick Omeruo and Musa would have taken if they had started the match today

We didn't even test the goalkeeper. Chai!

forgiveness:
As for me, I already know this Nigerian boys are exceptionally good .

You saw how Lookman played in the last match. You saw how Onomah played like a champion in the last match. Today you saw Solanke and Ojo brought to the table when going got tough. They played like champions.

The other two i didn't mention are also very good. Though, I want all of them in our National team.


However, I think they nolonger in our reach if they win the cup.

Today is the first time I ever saw Solanke play. From the match today, I will submit that there is a LOT LOT MORE to his game than scoring goals. The little I know of him has been largely informed by the comments I read on this thread which made me rate him lowly