Dammy wrote:My bro Cell, you are the liar here and you know it! You are trying to cover up the shenanigans that was the selection for WC 2014 by your man. You talk of other coaches bringing in 2-3 changes, yet your man brought in 9 players from nowhere into the WC squad and these players were not better than those they replaced. Examples are IK Uche> Uchebo, Joel Obi> Reuben, Obasi > Nwofor, Ideye > Ameobi etc. The fact that the Nigerian environment is difficult for locals does not justify fraud in team selection. IN 2014, the likes of Joel Obi, Obasi, IK Uche, Nsofor, Ideye, Aluko etc were playing at a high level yet were not considered and inferior players taken to the WC. Where are the likes of Reuben, Ejike, Nwofor, Agbim, Odunlami, Uchebo, Ameobi etc today. The WC is supposed to be a stepping stone to bigger things on the club level but in their case it is the reverse.
[1] I have ignored your bile just to keep the peace on the forum but I think you have gone too far with your allegations against the late Stephen Keshi. You are soiling the name of a man who is not here to defend himself and I find that totally unacceptable and despicable, so have decided to respond. In our African culture, it is extremely rude to speak evil of the dead
[2] Keshi picked the 2014 squad after the games against Italy and Scotland in London. I went to both matches and attended his press conferences afterwards. It was easy to see how he came about his final 23
[3] If you were a decent human being, you would just Google Keshi's comments about his selection and read about the justification he gave. I am not aware of anybody questioning the validity of the final 23 at the time
[4] Now let me address some issues. Shola Ameobi was our best player in that Italy game. He thoroughly deserved to go to the World Cup. Ameobi was the second choice targetman behind Emenike. Please name one Nigeria who could have performed better in that role. Of the 180m of us, Emenike and Ameobi were the best two targetmen we had in 2014. That is a fact!
[5] I remember Keshi saying that Ike Uche was dropped because he was yet to psycologically recover from his injury. Keshi said Ike Uche was shying out of challenges afraid that his injury might recur. I am a big fan of Ike Uche aka Gari Master and was sad to see him miss out but I fully accept the argument that if a player is not yet fully recovered from injury, it is unwise to take him to the World Cup
[6] His brother Kalu Uche was way past his best by 2014, so please stop mentioning him here. Kalu was one of our star players in 2010 but four years on, he was past it
[7] Uchebo also played brilliantly against Scotland, scoring a scorcher from 40 yards. His running with the ball left all of us in awe at Fulham that night. It is very callous of you to suggest that such a bright spark was picked because of corruption. Very bad taste indeed
[8] Another player whose dropping broke my heart was Joel Obi. I really love that guy and remember discussing him with Ade Akinbiyi and Seyi Olofinjana after the match. We were very impressed with his touch, passing and vision. However, Keshi made it clear that Joel had just come back from injury, was not match fit and even had to be taken off in one of the friendlies after getting another knock. As sad as I was about it, I understood the thinking because in 1998, we took the injured Kanu and Amokachi to the World Cup and they were unable to play. Not only did this facilitate our elimination but it also deprived us from looking at other players
[9] Now, we can go on and on about the final list and I am sure that it would be impossible for two people to fully agree on the best squad, so there is no point taking every player one by one. However, the fact remains that the selection was transparent and Keshi made the decisions he did at the time based on the realities he faced. Just because you disagree with some of his choices does not give you the right to allege that corruption was behind his decisions
[10] Lastly, can I point out that I find your arrogance on this matter totally unacceptable. You have arrogated a monopoly of wisdom to yourself on who the best 23 Nigerian players are. Nigeria is a country of 180 coaches, so we all have to argue our cases passionately. Everyone has the right to produce their list but what no one has the right to do is claim that the list produced by other fans is as a result of some hidden agenda. I think you owe this forum an apology for your foul language, libelous insinuations and disrespect to Keshi. Football is a very passionate sport and genuine fans know that there will always be people with strong opposing views.