EGUAVOEN: Rohr Should Invite Babatunde.....

[Ayo Akinfe]

So according to Ayo Akinfe's logic, a player in the obscure Qatari league is best equipped to face the big guns of world football like Germany, Spain, France and Brazil. The low level of football that he is currently playing is enough to knock him out of the equation. We are yet to integrate Serie A players like Okonkwo and Obi, some peeps are talking about a player in Qatar! If he was any good, he would not be playing in the Middle East.

Where are Mikel and Ighalo currently plying their trade? Has Ghana's leading goalscorer Asamoah Gyan not played the bulk of his club football in the Middle East?

So the level of the Chinese league and the Qatari league is the same. Please name one top player in the Qatari league and I would name ten in the Chinese league. In one breath you talk about a serious 23 man squad in another you are advocating for a mediocre player. This is why many folks on CE don't take you serious. You keep contradicting yourself without even knowing it!

If Eguavoen has watched him and recommended him, who are you to dismiss his call? Have you watched him?

[Ayo Akinfe]

I must admit I am perplexed as to how this boys career did not take off after the World Cup. he looked like a very good playmaker.

I must admit I have not watched him since but it would be a good idea for Rohr to have a look at him. If Mikel is sitting alongside Ndidi in front of the defence, we need an agile and mobile playmaker who can orchestrate things upfront.

For now, I only really see Kelechi Nwakali as that man but having Michael Babatunde compete for the shirt with him sounds like a great idea to me. Our team is finally taking shape.

comedy hour on CE

Oh boy, you see as we see am?

He admitted that he has not watched the player lately, so he has ZERO IDEA of the player's present form, yet, he wants the player invited based on what he thinks he saw 3 years ago!

No point arguing with you. It was Eguavoen who recommended him. What if Eguavoen went to watch him and was highly impressed with what he saw?

[metalalloy]

I must admit I am perplexed as to how this boys career did not take off after the World Cup. he looked like a very good playmaker.

I must admit I have not watched him since but it would be a good idea for Rohr to have a look at him. If Mikel is sitting alongside Ndidi in front of the defence, we need an agile and mobile playmaker who can orchestrate things upfront.

For now, I only really see Kelechi Nwakali as that man but having Michael Babatunde compete for the shirt with him sounds like a great idea to me. Our team is finally taking shape.

comedy hour on CE

Oh boy, you see as we see am?

He admitted that he has not watched the player lately, so he has ZERO IDEA of the player's present form, yet, he wants the player invited based on what he thinks he saw 3 years ago!

No point arguing with you. It was Eguavoen who recommended him. What if Eguavoen went to watch him and was highly impressed with what he saw?

Eguavoen, who worked with Michael Babatunde in the Nigeria U23s in 2011, said: “Michael has grown tremendously as a player. We all saw his exploits in Brazil 2014.

The quote above is from the first post in this thread. If he watched him, he would have talked about his current form. Just like you, he didn't watch JACK shyte.

[Cito]

Might the 'hate' have something to do with the fact that Babatunde's
initial invite was by an Indigenous Coach?

I think it had more to do with the players that were dropped - MBA, J Obi, Nosa, Ike Uche players that played during the qualifiers won the ANC then dropped for this guy that nobody had seen play and no one knew a thing about the whole thing stunk and still stinks.

Was he good when he played?

[Flex Swift]

Points 1-3 show a shallow thinking individual rather than an open minded intellectual. It also reveals the person has no idea how to build a team talk less a football team.For a start a team that wins promotion recruits tried and tested players that have played at the new level. They don't recruit a bunch of greenhorns. That have never been tested in a competitive match. Friendlies do not reveal how good a player is. Only a competitive environment will reveal the true quality of the team and the players.Evidence taken by from Sola, Uchebo , Reuben who shone in a friendly leading up to last the World Cup but made zero contribution during the competition proper. They scored a Grand Total of zero goals and zero assists so it is safe to say in the circumstances the originals Players MBA,Ike, J Obi, Nosa , Brown would have made a better impact. evidence Ike top scorer in qualifying Mba scored against Ivory Coast and the winner in the final. J Obi at the time was with Inter Milan while. Sola was clueless and club less.

The purpose of the World Cup qualifiers is for coaches to qualify and in the process test their selections in a competitive environment then then tweet the team in preparation for the World Cup. Only. Stark illiterates do what Nigeria did in 2002 in Soul overhaul the team.

Referencing Ghana as an example to follow is insulting referencing England is also insulting. The only examples Nigeria should follow in world football is Spain, Germany, Brazil and Portugal current European champions and none of them will be overhauling their teams and none will drop their top scorers from the qualifying Series.

[danfo driver]

I must admit I am perplexed as to how this boys career did not take off after the World Cup. he looked like a very good playmaker.

I must admit I have not watched him since but it would be a good idea for Rohr to have a look at him. If Mikel is sitting alongside Ndidi in front of the defence, we need an agile and mobile playmaker who can orchestrate things upfront.

For now, I only really see Kelechi Nwakali as that man but having Michael Babatunde compete for the shirt with him sounds like a great idea to me. Our team is finally taking shape.

comedy hour on CE

Oh boy, you see as we see am?

He admitted that he has not watched the player lately, so he has ZERO IDEA of the player's present form, yet, he wants the player invited based on what he thinks he saw 3 years ago!

No point arguing with you. It was Eguavoen who recommended him. What if Eguavoen went to watch him and was highly impressed with what he saw?

Eguavoen, who worked with Michael Babatunde in the Nigeria U23s in 2011, said: “Michael has grown tremendously as a player. We all saw his exploits in Brazil 2014.

The quote above is from the first post in this thread. If he watched him, he would have talked about his current form. Just like you, he didn't watch JACK shyte.

[wale1974]

[wale1974]

They are creeping out of the shadows representing all kinds of wastepipes they have no shame because they only respect and worship money. Ask yourself why couldn’t people suggest these players during the qualifiers so that they could be tested in a competitive environment????

Do you have any evidence to prove that any money has changed hands here? Is there anything wrong with recommending in-form players to the national team coach? As a nation, we need to grow up.

[Dammy]

Ayo Akinfe, you have made yourself a laughing stock again on the forum.

[Robotnik]

Babatunde will be a great back up to Mikel Obi - joke of the century

[wale1974]

I must admit I am perplexed as to how this boys career did not take off after the World Cup. he looked like a very good playmaker.

I must admit I have not watched him since but it would be a good idea for Rohr to have a look at him. If Mikel is sitting alongside Ndidi in front of the defence, we need an agile and mobile playmaker who can orchestrate things upfront.

For now, I only really see Kelechi Nwakali as that man but having Michael Babatunde compete for the shirt with him sounds like a great idea to me. Our team is finally taking shape.

My Belle o my head o

[Ayo Akinfe]

Why do some irritants have a problem with trying players who did not play in the qualifiers? I just cannot get this madness!

Is there any Fifa rule that says you must play in the qualifiers to feature in the World Cup? Phew!

[Synopsis]

Why do some irritants have a problem with trying players who did not play in the qualifiers? I just cannot get this madness!

Is there any Fifa rule that says you must play in the qualifiers to feature in the World Cup? Phew!

There is something called team chemistry. You can disrupt that by bringing in a bunch of unknowns into the fold.

[Polly]

Why do some irritants have a problem with trying players who did not play in the qualifiers? I just cannot get this madness!

Is there any Fifa rule that says you must play in the qualifiers to feature in the World Cup? Phew!

There is something called team chemistry. You can disrupt that by bringing in a bunch of unknowns into the fold.

In that case, there ought to be something called team psychotherapy: if there is a player of a higher standard in a particular position, you bring him in to enhance the team.

[truetalk]

I saw Cerezo poolside at a hotel in Abuja a while back. He was downing some bottles of Lager.

I hope the reporter did not catch him at a bad time?

BabaMESSI! BabaMessi!! BabaMESSI!!!

Weda na jazz, hook or crook

E no go work dis time!

[Mr Shows]

Why do some irritants have a problem with trying players who did not play in the qualifiers? I just cannot get this madness!

Is there any Fifa rule that says you must play in the qualifiers to feature in the World Cup? Phew!

Ayo the real madness is you suggesting a player that you don't know his current form, nor know what team he plays for. You are basing your recommendation on his short spell in the National team '3 years ago' Yet you spend all day knocking Musa who played in the same tournament and was our highest goal scorer.....I hope you can see the folly in what you are suggesting now.

[Ayo Akinfe]

Why do some irritants have a problem with trying players who did not play in the qualifiers? I just cannot get this madness!

Is there any Fifa rule that says you must play in the qualifiers to feature in the World Cup? Phew!

Ayo the real madness is you suggesting a player that you don't know his current form, nor know what team he plays for. You are basing your recommendation on his short spell in the National team '3 years ago' Yet you spend all day knocking Musa who played in the same tournament and was our highest goal scorer.....I hope you can see the folly in what you are suggesting now.

I will bite my tongue here. Michael Bsbatunde’s name only came up because Cerezo mentioned him!

[Ayo Akinfe]

Why do some irritants have a problem with trying players who did not play in the qualifiers? I just cannot get this madness!

Is there any Fifa rule that says you must play in the qualifiers to feature in the World Cup? Phew!

There is something called team chemistry. You can disrupt that by bringing in a bunch of unknowns into the fold.

In that case, there ought to be something called team psychotherapy: if there is a player of a higher standard in a particular position, you bring him in to enhance the team.

According to the logic of their argument, PSG were wrong to buy Neymar because he disrupted “team chemistry.” I am sure someone me of them just heard that phrase and just decide to megaphy it without even understanding what it means.

Just to see how dumb they are, their argument implies that if Lionel Messi misses four or five Barcelona games with injury and the team is winning in his absence, it would be wrong to bring him back because he would disrupt “team chemistry.” Thus takes ignorance to unprecedented heights!

[Synopsis]

Why do some irritants have a problem with trying players who did not play in the qualifiers? I just cannot get this madness!

Is there any Fifa rule that says you must play in the qualifiers to feature in the World Cup? Phew!

There is something called team chemistry. You can disrupt that by bringing in a bunch of unknowns into the fold.

In that case, there ought to be something called team psychotherapy: if there is a player of a higher standard in a particular position, you bring him in to enhance the team.

2-3 changes is fine. Some people here would replace most of the players in the starting 11.

[Enugu II]

Ayo,

TBH, I am surprised and amused by your insistence on a major overhaul of the team. I assume that is what you have stridently called for since Nigeria qualified for the World Cup. I have hoped that my assumption is wrong but reading several of your comments I have become convinced that I am NOT wrong.

I am surprised because you have followed Nigerian football for a long period and that history should have taught you a lesson on what is effective and what is not. However, it does not appear that you care about such history. Let me remind you about one that is very difficult for me to forget.

Go back to the qualifiers of the 1982 World Cup, two years after Nigeria was crowned African champions for the first time. I hope you remember then. It was in preparation for the game against Algeria at the last stage of the World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria was desperate to qualify. We had been so close in 1970 and then 1978 qualifiers but as you may remember, we failed on both occasions. In 1982 qualifiers we had Coach Otto Gloria who had just won the AFCON for Nigeria. This was a man associated with the great Benfica teams of the 1950s and 1960s, a man who led Portugal to their best placing ever at a World Cup in 1966, and a man Brazil courted to coach its National Selection at the 1970 World Cup. Nigeria had him in 1982.

At the time, we thought that Nigeria's best chance against Algeria was to invite our best players wherever they may be to join the NT. Only very few journalists opposed this, citing the importance of chemistry that was developing with a team that had a young Stephen Keshi, among others. The warnings were ignored. Instead, the calls grew louder for inviting the best players. The NFA recalled Christian Chukwu from retirement. The NFF called back Thompson Usiyan and Andrew Atuegbu from the USA. We were estatic. With such firepower, we certainly would not only beat Algeria but humiliate them.

In a warm up game in Benin, we lost 0-1 to Uganda. It was a warning. It was ignored. On match day, Algeria ran rings around our so called best players in Lagos and we were 0-2 down at home in Lagos. Instead of Keshi, we started Chukwu. Instead of the likes of Aloysius Atuegbu, we started Andrew. We started Usiyan. None of those so called stars did anything worthwhile on the field. You should remember that day. You watched it and yet....

Now you are calling for a similar overhaul just before the World Cup? IMHO, it is a dangerous call. My only hope is that Gernot Rohr is a conservative man and will be best served by ignoring such calls. He has relied largely on building chemistry and introducing new players gradually. It has paid off. He will not start changing that philosophy now for a pot of gold. At least, I assume that he will not. He will make changes but they will be minimal and that should be the logical expectation and not a kamikaze strategy of an overhaul.

This is just my tuppence.

[danfo driver]

Ayo,

TBH, I am surprised and amused by your insistence on a major overhaul of the team. I assume that is what you have stridently called for since Nigeria qualified for the World Cup. I have hoped that my assumption is wrong but reading several of your comments I have become convinced that I am NOT wrong.

I am surprised because you have followed Nigerian football for a long period and that history should have taught you a lesson on what is effective and what is not. However, it does not appear that you care about such history. Let me remind you about one that is very difficult for me to forget.

Go back to the qualifiers of the 1982 World Cup, two years after Nigeria was crowned African champions for the first time. I hope you remember then. It was in preparation for the game against Algeria at the last stage of the World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria was desperate to qualify. We had been so close in 1970 and then 1978 qualifiers but as you may remember, we failed on both occasions. In 1982 qualifiers we had Coach Otto Gloria who had just won the AFCON for Nigeria. This was a man associated with the great Benfica teams of the 1950s and 1960s, a man who led Portugal to their best placing ever at a World Cup in 1966, and a man Brazil courted to coach its National Selection at the 1970 World Cup. Nigeria had him in 1982.

At the time, we thought that Nigeria's best chance against Algeria was to invite our best players wherever they may be to join the NT. Only very few journalists opposed this, citing the importance of chemistry that was developing with a team that had a young Stephen Keshi, among others. The warnings were ignored. Instead, the calls grew louder for inviting the best players. The NFA recalled Christian Chukwu from retirement. The NFF called back Thompson Usiyan and Andrew Atuegbu from the USA. We were estatic. With such firepower, we certainly would not only beat Algeria but humiliate them.

In a warm up game in Benin, we lost 0-1 to Uganda. It was a warning. It was ignored. On match day, Algeria ran rings around our so called best players in Lagos and we were 0-2 down at home in Lagos. Instead of Keshi, we started Chukwu. Instead of the likes of Aloysius Atuegbu, we started Andrew. We started Usiyan. None of those so called stars did anything worthwhile on the field. You should remember that day. You watched it and yet....

Now you are calling for a similar overhaul just before the World Cup? IMHO, it is a dangerous call. My only hope is that Gernot Rohr is a conservative man and will be best served by ignoring such calls. He has relied largely on building chemistry and introducing new players gradually. It has paid off. He will not start changing that philosophy now for a pot of gold. At least, I assume that he will not. He will make changes but they will be minimal and that should be the logical expectation and not a kamikaze strategy of an overhaul.

This is just my tuppence.

Nigerians do not care much for history. Nigerians will do the same thing, the same way over and over again and they will expect a different result. You go back to 1982, hell, just look back at our last few world cups!

Additionally, I am shocked about Ayo's disregard for history though, since he is a huge fan of history and tries to participate on every single history discussion on facebook.

[Ayo Akinfe]

Ayo,

TBH, I am surprised and amused by your insistence on a major overhaul of the team. I assume that is what you have stridently called for since Nigeria qualified for the World Cup. I have hoped that my assumption is wrong but reading several of your comments I have become convinced that I am NOT wrong.

I am surprised because you have followed Nigerian football for a long period and that history should have taught you a lesson on what is effective and what is not. However, it does not appear that you care about such history. Let me remind you about one that is very difficult for me to forget.

Go back to the qualifiers of the 1982 World Cup, two years after Nigeria was crowned African champions for the first time. I hope you remember then. It was in preparation for the game against Algeria at the last stage of the World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria was desperate to qualify. We had been so close in 1970 and then 1978 qualifiers but as you may remember, we failed on both occasions. In 1982 qualifiers we had Coach Otto Gloria who had just won the AFCON for Nigeria. This was a man associated with the great Benfica teams of the 1950s and 1960s, a man who led Portugal to their best placing ever at a World Cup in 1966, and a man Brazil courted to coach its National Selection at the 1970 World Cup. Nigeria had him in 1982.

At the time, we thought that Nigeria's best chance against Algeria was to invite our best players wherever they may be to join the NT. Only very few journalists opposed this, citing the importance of chemistry that was developing with a team that had a young Stephen Keshi, among others. The warnings were ignored. Instead, the calls grew louder for inviting the best players. The NFA recalled Christian Chukwu from retirement. The NFF called back Thompson Usiyan and Andrew Atuegbu from the USA. We were estatic. With such firepower, we certainly would not only beat Algeria but humiliate them.

In a warm up game in Benin, we lost 0-1 to Uganda. It was a warning. It was ignored. On match day, Algeria ran rings around our so called best players in Lagos and we were 0-2 down at home in Lagos. Instead of Keshi, we started Chukwu. Instead of the likes of Aloysius Atuegbu, we started Andrew. We started Usiyan. None of those so called stars did anything worthwhile on the field. You should remember that day. You watched it and yet....

Now you are calling for a similar overhaul just before the World Cup? IMHO, it is a dangerous call. My only hope is that Gernot Rohr is a conservative man and will be best served by ignoring such calls. He has relied largely on building chemistry and introducing new players gradually. It has paid off. He will not start changing that philosophy now for a pot of gold. At least, I assume that he will not. He will make changes but they will be minimal and that should be the logical expectation and not a kamikaze strategy of an overhaul.

This is just my tuppence.

(1) You and I take different lessons from the 1981 loss to Algeria. As far as I am concerned, we lost that tie due to Otto Gloria’s conservative refusal to drop Best Ogedengbe

(2) Best Ogedengbe cost us both matches against Algeria as he did the 1980 Olympics

(3) In 1981, Peter Rufai was by far the best goalkeeper in Nigeria but alas, Gloria refused to call him up. We paid a heavy price for such stubbornness

(4) If you are blaming the stars for the first leg loss, how come we still lost the away leg when Gloria reverted back to his “old team?”

(5) in any case, I fundamentally disagree with your premise that conservatism breeds chemistry. If you chemicalise junk in the laboratory, you will get a junk end product, no matter how many years you put into the project

(6) According to the logic of your argument, teams like Libya, Sierra Leone and Liberia that have had few changes over the last three years should be dominating African football

(7) Otto Gloria enjoyed his greatest success in 1980 when he was brave enoiugh to bring youngsters like Ifeanyi Onyeadika, Henry Nwosu, Okey Isima, Sylvanua Okpala, John Orlando, etc into the team, dumping veterans like Patrick Ekeji and Annas Ahmed

(8) I notice that you conveniently failed to mention our match with Tunisia in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers. Well, let me refresh your memory. Our “chemicalised” old team lost the first leg 0-2 and the NFA took the drastic step of bringing in John Chidozie, Tunji Banjo and Emmanuel Osigwe. The rest is history. They went on to win the return leg for us, eliminating Tunisia. Within a week, team chemistry was forged to the neutral victory

(9) There is no evidence to suggest that the players we used in the qualifiers will be able to forge better chemistry during the one month pre-World Cup camping period than any new invitees

(10) According to the logic of your argument, we should have been disjointed against Argentina with the introduction of new faces like Uzoho, Ebuehi and Idowu. Well, I know which half of that match showed “greater chemistry.”

[theYemster]

Ayo,

TBH, I am surprised and amused by your insistence on a major overhaul of the team. I assume that is what you have stridently called for since Nigeria qualified for the World Cup. I have hoped that my assumption is wrong but reading several of your comments I have become convinced that I am NOT wrong.

I am surprised because you have followed Nigerian football for a long period and that history should have taught you a lesson on what is effective and what is not. However, it does not appear that you care about such history. Let me remind you about one that is very difficult for me to forget.

Go back to the qualifiers of the 1982 World Cup, two years after Nigeria was crowned African champions for the first time. I hope you remember then. It was in preparation for the game against Algeria at the last stage of the World Cup qualifiers. Nigeria was desperate to qualify. We had been so close in 1970 and then 1978 qualifiers but as you may remember, we failed on both occasions. In 1982 qualifiers we had Coach Otto Gloria who had just won the AFCON for Nigeria. This was a man associated with the great Benfica teams of the 1950s and 1960s, a man who led Portugal to their best placing ever at a World Cup in 1966, and a man Brazil courted to coach its National Selection at the 1970 World Cup. Nigeria had him in 1982.

At the time, we thought that Nigeria's best chance against Algeria was to invite our best players wherever they may be to join the NT. Only very few journalists opposed this, citing the importance of chemistry that was developing with a team that had a young Stephen Keshi, among others. The warnings were ignored. Instead, the calls grew louder for inviting the best players. The NFA recalled Christian Chukwu from retirement. The NFF called back Thompson Usiyan and Andrew Atuegbu from the USA. We were estatic. With such firepower, we certainly would not only beat Algeria but humiliate them.

In a warm up game in Benin, we lost 0-1 to Uganda. It was a warning. It was ignored. On match day, Algeria ran rings around our so called best players in Lagos and we were 0-2 down at home in Lagos. Instead of Keshi, we started Chukwu. Instead of the likes of Aloysius Atuegbu, we started Andrew. We started Usiyan. None of those so called stars did anything worthwhile on the field. You should remember that day. You watched it and yet....

Now you are calling for a similar overhaul just before the World Cup? IMHO, it is a dangerous call. My only hope is that Gernot Rohr is a conservative man and will be best served by ignoring such calls. He has relied largely on building chemistry and introducing new players gradually. It has paid off. He will not start changing that philosophy now for a pot of gold. At least, I assume that he will not. He will make changes but they will be minimal and that should be the logical expectation and not a kamikaze strategy of an overhaul.

This is just my tuppence.

The difference in your example is that they didn't overhaul the team with better players. To be fair that's not what wAyo is calling for. For all we know back then in 1982 the problem could've brb recalling inferior/old/out of form players and not necessarily a lack of team chemistry.