The YeyeMan wrote:Gotti wrote:nzeogwu wrote:Who watched Fulham vs Cardiff? To the positive minded brothers on the forum, what do you think of Josh Onomah? Is he Eagles material? One tree does not make a forest and certainly neither does one goal but men!!!!
I thought of Josh as probably the BEST ‘Nigerian’ on display in the England U20 side that won the WYC a few years back - better than Tomori, Lookman, Ejaria, Ojo, and Solanke. Was somewhat baffled he apparently couldn’t make the cut at Spurs.
Agreed. He was the one who impressed the most and the one I wanted to nab from England.
I hope these two polished soccer minds are not showing tendencies of survivor bias in this case (slightly overrating those still available for Nigeria). I watched a lot of that tournament & zoned in on the six naija kids on the English team, especially since our very talented U-20 team lost at home to Sudan (I think) in the qualifiers.
I thought Tomori was the best of the lot on display, & could have been useful to the Eagles at the time. Thankfully a lot of Central Defensive talent is coming through, so he won't really be missed, even though Nigeria would have been better for him. (Same with Tammy, with Osimhen now in full bloom).
Onomah & Ejariah can be likened to six & a half-dozen, but Ejaria looked better to me in that tournament, & looks better than Onomah everytime I see him.
We could certainly do with both in our 23 and midfield though.
Find my rankings of the six right after the tournament. That (added to their U-17 team from the same summer) was when I knew England had some major talent coming through.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=282966&p=5092511&hilit=ojo#p5092511
Here is my analysis of the 6 Nigerians in England's U-20 WC winning side, as far as the SE is concerned.
1) Fikayo Tomori - We should go after him most aggressively. Can compete to be in the final 23 to Russia.
2) Ovie Ejaria - The SE midfield is loaded, and he may not make it to Russia based on options, but he is a long term prospect, and should be tracked.
3) Josh Onomah - Same with Ejaria, even though I rate Ejaria higher.
4) Seyi Ojo - Needs to raise his game a few notches to have a senior level international career with any country. A southpaw with pace is never a bad thing, but he'll need to add maturity and intelligence to his game. He has too much of 'Isaac Success' going on.
5) Dominic Solanke - No need to pursue. It will be a fruitless effort. His heart and mind are with England and it will be tough to convince him otherwise with the Liverpool move. He also does not brong any qualities we don't have in abundance elsewhere.
6) Ademola Lookman: His best option is with Nigeria, but he is drinking the English media cool aid at the moment and it will be be tough to even get him to look our way. Sadly we have seen this happen before, and he seems destined for a few meaningless caps for England.