ENGLAND CALLS SOLANKE v BRAZIL

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

Well, looks like all our foreign born options have chosen other. Ountries. SOlanke,Abraham, udokai and Torunarigha don't want to play for us. Who else is left? Even Young Taiwo Ebun has is on their radar. Goodluck to them all! Happy we got Iwobi,Moses and Aina from the queen's football team.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41950285

[Benedict Iroha]

Develop our players

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

Develop our players

How? We give them a chance and people like you want them removed and banished from the 10mins into their first game.

[Igugu]

Develop our players

Develop our leagues first. Run them like it is done in other countries with much better leagues.

[Bell]

Develop our players

THAT, SIR, IS...

...the right answer. Good for the NFA, trying to reap where they did not sow. Just like the national agric policy.
Bell

[Bell]

Develop our players

Develop our leagues first. Run them like it is done in other countries with much better leagues.

IF IT'S DEVELOPING A LEAGUE...

...I can give them blueprints that would relegate the European leagues to second place. It would be fully private, profitable, professionally run, enjoyable and unique. But I'm not sure they'd want to listen because it would be like "cheeking" the European leagues.
Bell

[Damunk]

Develop our players

Develop our leagues first. Run them like it is done in other countries with much better leagues.

IF IT'S DEVELOPING A LEAGUE...

...I can give them blueprints that would relegate the European leagues to second place. It would be fully private, profitable, professionally run, enjoyable and unique. But I'm not sure they'd want to listen because it would be like "cheeking" the European leagues.
Bell

With all due respect, Sir......
(You probably know the rest)

[Coach]

@Bell, what good does development serve? There's a reason a flushed toilet handle brings as much water as a dry Sahara..."they" dont want development.

[truetalk]

Develop our players

Develop our leagues first. Run them like it is done in other countries with much better leagues.

IF IT'S DEVELOPING A LEAGUE...

...I can give them blueprints that would relegate the European leagues to second place. It would be fully private, profitable, professionally run, enjoyable and unique. But I'm not sure they'd want to listen because it would be like "cheeking" the European leagues.
Bell

With all due respect, Sir......
(You probably know the rest)

Who are they?

Come home and form the league, or work with Partners who can do the same.

A couple of us on the forum spoke about doing something small (school level) on the basketball side. Some guys already did it on a much higher level with the alternative ABL, and they went ahead despite serious opposition from the NBBF and NBBL.

It is more than writing a strategy or policy paper. I reckon a couple of millions dollars is allocated (as a whole) to all the government owned sides in the league every year. You think those guys want to give that up? You need a solid implementation plan. You need partners (legal and financial) and alliances.

Writing a policy or strategy paper is not even 1% of the work. I can tell you that from experience in my experience in Government (Federal and Lagos). Even if wholly private, you can't avoid the regulation of government. That is where you need those alliances to either navigate or change the regulation.

[truetalk]

As for Solanke, no biggie.

Tammy Abraham is a much bigger loss, because he brings something we lack. I'll call it the role Ideye had the skills and potential to perform (even Ideye never fulfilled that potential)

The next person I can think of in that role is Awoniyi. I think he needs to score in double figures this season to have a shot.

Other strikers currently not in the SE setup (who can't be lone targetmen, but can help the SE if they come good) are Dessers and Dennis.

[airwolex]

Why does Kongi have such a gripe against foreign born Naijas? Without Balogun, Moses, Iwobi, Ekong where would we be?.

We need to be smarter in recruiting these guys. I was in London for years and played bball with some of these London Naijas and a lot of them LOVE Nigeria. They just need a bit of a push, that's all.

[truetalk]

Why does Kongi have such a gripe against foreign born Naijas? Without Balogun, Moses, Iwobi, Ekong where would we be?.

We need to be smarter in recruiting these guys. I was in London for years and played bball with some of these London Naijas and a lot of them LOVE Nigeria. They just need a bit of a push, that's all.

He probably tried to toast a fine Nigerian - American chick who wanted no part of his thick Ibadan accent and Gbegiri smelling mouth.
I guess Kong has no swag and no game.

[Damunk]

I suspect that these early call-ups for Tammy and Solanke are strategic - and it is just the beginning.

If you think about it, Nigeria has a phenomenally large number of players in the English youth ranks with dual nationality claims. Probably more than any other nation. What we are seeing is a combination of football pedigree and legacy (some have retired football-playing fathers), all being developed in an organised system.

Its all well and good talking about 'developing our own players' and I guess it is the commonsensical thing to argue and do. But the reality is that it is not happening fast enough and we have a large number of eligible players developing just fine in one of the top three football league systems in the world. Everything else is pure sentiment...and sentiment doesn't win you world cups or even friendly matches.

Spain would have been more than happy to claim Messi if they could when he was first coming through. Likewise other top talent that moved at an early age to climes outside their countries of birth. Its a dog-eat-dog soccer world and you grab what you legitimately can. He who dares wins.

For anyone to make the spurious argument that these UK-based young Nigerians are getting mentioned 'only because they play in England' is simply stating the obvious. If they were playing as youths in Vietnam or Finland no-one would bother. England, Germany Spain and probably Italy are the countries where the best players in the world ply their trade. So no-one need make any apologies for looking in on what they can 'steal' from those leagues - legitimately.

Nobody complains when the USA brazenly poaches intellectual talent from around the world with their green card lottery. So what's with all this misplaced sanctimonious concern for taking what other nations developed? Developing our own local players and taking what we can from elsewhere are not mutually exclusive actions.

England recognises the danger of losing potential world-class players to Nigeria and have been alerted by the loss of at least three such cases: Moses, Iwobi and Aina. There will surely be more. The point is, they can't cap all of them but will certainly try to make them 'unavailable' to us and they are starting the wooing process already by playing them early in friendlies.

Adarabioyo of Man City for instance will probably soon get a call up as he is at that age where he could become attractive to Nigeria. I think we should keep the pressure on them. We will win some, lose some but nobody should start making anyone feel bad about combing the top leagues of the world for eligible talent. If the English FA are going to keep capping young Nigerian players and then dropping them just to block us then it will eventually backfire. The word will surely get out and future players like Tammy and Solanke might take a more practical approach to what we recognise to be a very difficult decision for a young player.

Even the harshest critics of foreign recruitment are likely to forget the politics of the matter once a Nigerian SE team makes a huge impact in the WC finals.

[The YeyeMan]

The Solanke call up is tactical - possibly part of an emerging strategy to thwart other countries from taking players who grew up in the English system.

In times gone by, the England manager would have selected players on merit alone, now their hand has been forced by recent developments with Iwobi, Zaha, and Nigeria's very public courting of Abraham. I also have the impression, perhaps wrongly, that Nigeria may have reached an agreement with another English-born player, and this is what may have triggered the FA into a reaction.

Two more things: 1. England capping players as a means to stop them playing for other countries is a strategy which may ultimately backfire. Players should be chosen on merit unless there are special circumstances which demand otherwise.

2. Nigeria should continue to scout players born overseas who have dual nationality - and look to secure those who can improve the team. This activity is independent of Nigeria continuing to improve and develop its own leagues and players.

[airwolex]

Nice one Truetalk, Damunk and Yeyeman.

BTW Victor Moses and Leon Balogun have been included in CAF's first eleven. The quality they bring is undeniable. It is madness to say we should stop trying to poach Naija Brits or Europeans. It's almost like leaving money on the table, and I am truly baffled by people that make this argument.

In Bball circles this narrative doesn't even exist. D Tigers are almost elusively made up of Nigerian Americans and without them Angola would still be beating us like we stole something.

[airwolex]

The Solanke call up is tactical - possibly part of an emerging strategy to thwart over countries from taking players who grew up in the English system.

In times gone by, the England manager would have selected players on merit alone, now their hand has been forced by recent developments with Iwobi, Zaha, and Nigeria's very public courting of Abraham. I also have the impression, perhaps wrongly, that Nigeria may have reached an agreement with another English-born player, and this is what may have triggered the FA into a reaction.

Two more things: 1. England capping players as a means to stop them playing for other countries is a strategy which may ultimately backfire. Players should be chosen on merit unless there are special circumstances which demand otherwise.

2. Nigeria should continue to scout players born overseas who have dual nationality - and look to secure those who can improve the team. This activity is independent of Nigeria continuing to improve and develop its own leagues and players.

Lol, England have cottoned on. Vic Moses would most definitely have been in their WC squad and Iwobi is clearly one that has potential too. Abraham and Solanke are two guys that have big time potential so they would have been mad to just let us have them.

But it's all good. They screwed Canada and Germany over with Owen Hargreaves and Michael Owen is really Welsh. There are several Irish and Scottish players that they have also co-opted. let the games begin.

[ogasir]

We should move on to recruiting Nigerian German kids. A lot of Nigerian kids are starting to come through their system.

[oloye]

I took my son for his club match yesterday, he was the only black person in his team, but whoa when we got to the match venue, of the starting 11 the opposing team had about 7 black players including the keeper, one look at their faces i knew they were all of Nigerian descent, see their swagger. They rolled over my son's team,in fact i knew the outcome even before they started.

There was a boy that caught my eye, he played in the dm role, the boy was big and tall,with thighs like iroko trees and calf like timber trees. What caught my eyes for his size and age,that boy bossed the middle, i piyied my son who tried to tangle with him, the boy shrugged my son off like a piece of 'akisa'.

Nigerians are set to make their marks here, but i fear the poor state of their league means they would all be heading to the UK.

[Cellular]

The Solanke call up is tactical - possibly part of an emerging strategy to thwart other countries from taking players who grew up in the English system.

In times gone by, the England manager would have selected players on merit alone, now their hand has been forced by recent developments with Iwobi, Zaha, and Nigeria's very public courting of Abraham. I also have the impression, perhaps wrongly, that Nigeria may have reached an agreement with another English-born player, and this is what may have triggered the FA into a reaction.

Two more things: 1. England capping players as a means to stop them playing for other countries is a strategy which may ultimately backfire. Players should be chosen on merit unless there are special circumstances which demand otherwise.

2. Nigeria should continue to scout players born overseas who have dual nationality - and look to secure those who can improve the team. This activity is independent of Nigeria continuing to improve and develop its own leagues and players.

Good luck to the guy.

Hope he doesn't end up like the rest of 'fringe' guys that were capped in order to tie them to England and never got regular invites after the deed was done.

[dhoney]

I took my son for his club match yesterday, he was the only black person in his team, but whoa when we got to the match venue, of the starting 11 the opposing team had about 7 black players including the keeper, one look at their faces i knew they were all of Nigerian descent, see their swagger. They rolled over my son's team,in fact i knew the outcome even before they started.

There was a boy that caught my eye, he played in the dm role, the boy was big and tall,with thighs like iroko trees and calf like timber trees. What caught my eyes for his size and age,that boy bossed the middle, i piyied my son who tried to tangle with him, the boy shrugged my son off like a piece of 'akisa'.

Nigerians are to make their marks here, but i fear the poor state of their league means they would all be heading to the UK.

@Oloye, you need to impact all those your operation sweep skills in your boy....send out those ajebotas spirits

[danfo driver]

Why does Kongi have such a gripe against foreign born Naijas? Without Balogun, Moses, Iwobi, Ekong where would we be?.

We need to be smarter in recruiting these guys. I was in London for years and played bball with some of these London Naijas and a lot of them LOVE Nigeria. They just need a bit of a push, that's all.

These are NOT foreign born Nigerians.

[truetalk]

Why does Kongi have such a gripe against foreign born Naijas? Without Balogun, Moses, Iwobi, Ekong where would we be?.

We need to be smarter in recruiting these guys. I was in London for years and played bball with some of these London Naijas and a lot of them LOVE Nigeria. They just need a bit of a push, that's all.

These are NOT foreign born Nigerians.

Foreign bred, foreign developed, had the option to play for foreign countries though.

[danfo driver]

I dont know why you guys are stressing over silly things.

There are about 180 million Nigerians in Nigeria. Perhaps, more than 85 million are men. And Perhaps about 50 million of that are of the age capable of playing for Nigeria.

Then, abroad, there are millions of Nigerians abroad also.

Ultimately, England can only pick a squad of 23. Nigeria too can only pick a squad of 23. At the end of the day, England can cap every single Nigerian in their country, Nigeria will STILL BE ABLE TO SELECT 23 PLAYERS! And 80% of those Nigerian capped by England will end up like Agbonlahor!

By the grace of God, Iwobi, Aina and Moses will be going to the world cup next year. By God's grace we will go very far in the world cup and they will have amazing performances. That will propel their careers, specifically Aina, and they will move to bigger things.