The premier league clubs, always leaving it late.

 I’m talking about the champions league,  nowadays it’s always a final match thing to qualify, we even have to carry calculator and be doing small math, to see how many points we need to get to scale through to the round of 16, whether we need a draw or if we cannot afford to lose, stuffs like that, it’s always a sad tale for the English teams in the champions league nowadays, gone are the days of the golden era in the champions league for English clubs, when Chelsea and Manchester united would meet in the finals( even though it was only once), you get the feeling that it could never happen again, if you do, I’m sad to say I totally agree with you…

But why is it so?

Speaking to a friend recently, one of the reasons I got was that the English premier league have very tight fixtures especially during the December period, so the players don’t get enough time to recuperate, hence undermining their performance in the champions league, they play matches even on boxing day, a day after Christmas, while other leagues would probably be on a mini holiday, but it has always been like that, it has suddenly become an issue, in truth, the tight fixtures do play a major role in determining these things, e.g. Chelsea have had to travel almost 12000 miles across Europe to play away champions league games.

In my opinion, I feel it could be that we do not just have the quality to complete at the highest level of club football, or we are simply not evolving fast enough, the last English team to win the champions league was Chelsea fc in 2012, and I dare say they didn’t really cruise to the trophy, let me just say they were destined to win it that year, nobody can stop your destiny!

Another was like ‘shey they’ve increased the money in premier league (talking about the new TV rights deal), they are probably not too bothered’.

But really, why do we find it hard to qualify easily from the group stage in recent years, only man city has qualified, Arsene Wenger needs a calculator, Jose Mourinho has it all to do against Porto and Van Gaal, well, he just can’t seem to get the best out of his lads.

It’s quite simple, the premier league clubs simply need to look for more quality or get the best out of their current crop of players, if we are ever going to qualify out of the group stage, let alone win the champions league AGAIN.

                                                                                                        ...for the love of sports.

GOLDEN EAGLETS>SUPER CHICKENS

Its Sunday 8th November 2015, and it’s almost 11pm, and I’m still awake…
Anxiously awaiting the kickoff of Nigeria’s match
Nigeria???
A lot of things can keep me awake but certainly not Nigeria’s match, I’m kinda tired of getting disappointed…unless of course it’s the GOLDEN EAGLETS.
So I was thinking of a suitable title for this post, it just didn’t come initially, eaglets are baby eagles, they will one day learn to soar and explore uncharted territories
Ahha!
Our super eagles have simply refused to fly, so, super chickens would be a proper, befitting title, chickens can’t fly, can they?
     It is astonishing that we have recorded such a huge amount of success at the under 17 level and yet we seem to falter at every attempt at the senior level. The super eagles, once the pride of the country, during the days of Austin JJ Okocha, and Kanu Nwankwo, Daniel ‘the bull’ Amokachi and in more recent times I dare say Vincent Enyeama, okay, I won’t pretend as if I knew anything about football then, but I heard stories, beautiful stories, but nowadays it’s just stories of another bad day at the office.
Yet again I would like to critically look at why we do so well at one stage, and not so very well at the other…
      Nigeria’s golden eaglets successfully RETAINED the FIFA under 17 world cup after beating mali at the Estgadio Sausalito Vina Del Mar in Chile on in the early hours of Monday 3rd of November, while they were at it they also bagged most of the individual accolades at the tournament.   That’s the 5th time (1985, 1993, 2007, 2013, and 2015), we’ve won the trophy.  The super eagles won the AFCON title in 2013, which was good, but their failure to even qualify for the next tournament showed how not so good we are, some quarters even suggested that the AFCON win was just a stroke of luck, kinda hard to disagree with them in that one, but a masterstroke that was, we simply are not good enough to put up a good fight on the world stage, yeah the world cup, I mean the world cup, why can’t we win it? Is It out of bound for Nigeria? Or Africa as a whole?
NO PROPER INTEGRATION
       This to me seems to be the most obvious reason our super eagles have clipped wings, there is no proper integration that explains why only a handful of these youngsters are in the super eagles’ team. Kanu Nwankwo won the M.V.P at the tournament in 93, and went on to become a great player for Nigeria, he truly made us proud. Some might argue that they are too young, no experience and so on, but what about those that won the trophy in 2007, where are they now? Why weren’t they properly integrated into the team, the reason to me is crystal clear, they weren’t in ‘pole position’ to break into the team.       I learnt about social imagination which tells one to question the obvious and look beyond the ordinary, so, I have come to the conclusion that the issue with our football team can be used as a model  to replicate the corrupt state of our nation.
some of the players that play for the super eagles are not even good enough to play for our very own Enyimba United whom I learnt just won the league, there have been allegations and/or speculations that these players sometimes pay their way into the super eagles team (I’m trying really hard to refrain from using the term chickens, maybe ostrich will do, ostriches don’t fly, do they?), therefore there is no chance for them to get into the team, they don’t have hard currencies to pay.
      Some of these golden eaglets also sometimes just do not have the zeal to further their development in football, while some find their way to clubs abroad and swish! That’s the end of Solomon grundy, these players do not simply wish to play for their country, the ones who really do, most times never get the chance, well we have hope for people like Kelechi Iheanacho, who is doing relatively well for himself at Manchester City, and I heard that president Muhammadu Buhari has recently vowed to redeem the pledges made to the maiden winners of the competition in 1985 (he was the president, or rather the head of state then). Fulfilling this promises will go a long way in developing the spirit of patriotism in these young chaps.
On a final note, I think proper integration of these lads into the senior team will go a long way into building a stronger super eagles, and we need to STOP CHANGING COACHES. I’m beginning to think Nigeria is looking up to Chelsea who by the way if they eventually decide to sack the special one, will be the 12th manager they’ve ‘released’ in about the same number of years. So, I do hope Sunday Oliseh when he gets well, reads this, and sees reason with me, lol, we need to give these lads a chance, don’t lose sight of these current crop of champions, set up a team, monitor their progress, and when they’re ripe (not in 10 years’ time ooo or when they have ‘hard currency’ to pay), integrate them into the super eagles team and watch us fly.
Leemme now see the juju that will stop us from winning the world cup! Yes! The WORLD CUP!

CHELSEA'S SLUMP: A CANDID OPINION PART I

I'm back!
Sad to have been away, been really busy
But I’m back!!!
“CARRY CHELSEA LOOSE OR DRAW, NA SURE BET BE THAT”. I couldn’t believe my ears, this same Chelsea, so prolific a few months ago, now a laughing stock, I must be dreaming, alas, I’m not, this is reality, Chelsea is nowhere to be found, last season’s best player is a shadow of himself, Matic won’t just pass the ball on time, Fabregas’s vision is quite blurry nowadays, Costa thinks he’s in the WWE, Willian has been by far our most outstanding player, WILLIAN! This is the start to the  premier league season I never imagined, with the  premier league champions currently languishing in 16th position, and  Leicester city currently sitting in third position, who would have ever imagined the premier league current standings could turn out this way, yet again, its football and as the saying goes ‘anything can happen’…
      So, if we were to critically examine Chelsea’s decline this season, we would probably find some alarming statistics, the defensive lapses this season has cost the blues so much. obviously the title race is out of the question, Chelsea are in dire need of a miracle to even make the top 4, and with every passing week, it seems unlikely that they’ll be playing in the champions league next season, unless of course they win the champions league…lol.
     It all started from Branislav Ivanovic, he seemed to be the perfect scapegoat to heap the blame on, ‘we have Rahman! Why won’t you use him Mourinho’!, that was what was on the lips of all Chelsea fans (including me I must admit at this point),
      well Rahman is playing now, and I must say, there hasn’t been much difference, although there has been signs of life in our two past games, seems like hazard is finally coming around, he was lively in our latest defeat at stoke, defeat! Sounds odd, but it’s a phase.
      In Ivanovic’s case, we were desperately looking for some excuse to cling on to, as our famous special one would always do, who he hasn’t blamed, oh I think I know, only himself!
He has been undisputedly the best manager to ever grace Stamford Bridge, but some pundits say that the days of the minds game master are over, oh! How I so badly want to disagree with them! Some might say he went a little bit too far with dr. Eva’s case, I’d totally agree on that one, that was way too far, that lady was like our good luck charm.

Wait…

Hmmmmm…

Her case got me thinking, if the Barclay’s premier league was in our own dear native land, we’d have probably heard stories like ‘she has gone to swear for Chelsea. That’s why they are playing rubbish, and that’s why the dip in form hit hazard so hard’.
But really o, this is Chelsea’s worst start since before I was born sef, 3 consecutive losses for the first time in 18 years, and Jose Mourinho has lost 7 league games, a league high for him in his entire illustrious career. Looking at the Portuguese’s record, you’ll find that he has only managed a maximum of 3 seasons at all the club he’s been to, he seems to burn out after then. Some questions we can’t just help but ask.
Is there any way back for the special one?
Are the players even solidly behind him??
How do you explain a team that played so creatively for the better part of last season now languishing somewhere in the other half of the table, dangling aimlessly above the relegation zone?
If you’re a Chelsea fan out there, it would interest you to know that the Russian billionaire oligarch is still standing solidly behind Mourinho, FOR NOW. This is the time to rally behind him, and support your team, be a true blue, as for me, I know this is a phase, I can only say ‘win, lose or tie, Chelsea till I die’
More to come…