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!
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!
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