Segun Oluwaniyi

That's a real shame. He's had rotten luck this season. It's equivalent to us losing Rooney tbh. Far worse tbh, Rooney maybe vital to us, but not nearly as vital as Essien is to them imo. Definitely disagree with this. The forwards are England's weakest outfield position. There aren't any other players in the squad who can even fill Rooney's role. Ghana's strongest position on the pitch is the one Essien frequents. While there won't be a player of his calibre, there are many able replacements.

What can those that watch the league tell me of Konko at Sevilla? He's been linked to l'OM. I can't remember too much about him.

Goodness, Neil you must be in World Cup mode already. Spending all this time watching football. I genuinely cannot understand why someone would invest their time in watching Nigeria-Saudi or Chile-Zambia. The opportunity cost is simply too high for me, mehn. I remember being so excited for all these friendlies when I was a child in '98 and '02, but now I'm really just hoping we can skip toward the last set of warmups and the actual finals.

Mandanda nearly f***ing up there - don't rate him in the slightest. Is this being played at Lens? I recognise the stadium but not sure where it is. Mandanda is too inconsistent to be great, but he's still a very good keeper. Great shot stopper. Zambia just had a change of manager, but if the squad is still playing the way they were in qualifying and the ACN it will be a decent match. They hustle with pace.

All about the money. Shocking lack of ambition. they also signed Bakari Kone from Marseille. I remember he cost a canny amount (around 10 million euros) when he transferred from OGC Nice 2 seasons back. We got about half of that back, so no big loss really. I liked Bakari, but his lack of size and cognitive function was always going to limit his chances under Deschamps. Those boys in the Middle East must certainly be putting real money on the table. Both of these players didn't hesitate to leave despite inevitable interest from Ligue 1 and the Premiership.

Man I didn't even watch it. I knew it wouldn't be worth the time. It's the first match with this manager and mostly he started players who are lacking fitness/may be the preliminary cuts from the squad. Especially in the first half actually. If we are playing like that come the last friendlies, I'll be worried, but as someone experienced with Nigerian football this doesn't stir me. Honestly, man you should have asked me before watching. I could have saved you the time. Haruna Lukman is supposed to have played pretty well though, which is encouraging as he has been balling for Monaco. Also pleased to see Ikechukwu Uche trying to gain fitness. He can embarass any defender.

The Ivorian defence was a joke when they were playing Algeria IIRC in the African cup. I think people in Europe make them out to be something they're not. Got beat by Korea 2-0 recently too i think. They still got that joker Boubacar Barry in goal? Barry is still #1. At the moment he's all they have. Really I think for Cote D'Ivoire and Nigeria alot comes down to whether they can be stabilised and organized by Sven and Lagerback respectively. Both had very poor managers beforehand, so it will be interesting to see how many of the problems were the result of that.

Can't see Portugal not breaching the Ivorian defence. The individual names look alright, but the evidence tells me it is not even one the better in Africa. The lack of keeper will hurt them as well. They still have a very good chance to do something though.

I selected Other, and by that I mean Nigeria of course. People will laugh and say the odds are long and that it is blind faith, but I do truly believe this team is capable of a good run. The team is by no means fantastic, but I believe we have players to compete with anyone, especially since all the relevant players (bar the flaky Euros like Onuoha and Aogo) will be there. It isn't that difficult really. Finish second in the group, beat France/Uruguay/Mexico/SA and suddenly you are in the quarterfinals. From there anything can happen. Simply ask Greece. Besides our bid, I think Spain are the favourites. I don't wish them to win, but they have an easy group and a great group of talent. I actually think Brasil is the best team, but that group is too treacherous for me to declare them favourites.

The kits seem absolutely fine to me. At the end of the day, it's a football kit and not a fashion statement. Our boys will look fine running on the glorious green grass and I believe it would look fine to wear around. I guess I'm just one of those people that will never understand the anger that is released over these sorts of things. Last year people were saying that the yellow custard kit a vicious and malicious attempt to embarass the supporters. Inevitably, it was fine and I was one of many that quite liked it. I definitely need to invest in a black and white home kit though. My last one is a fake from 2006 that says "Ma ti s" "9" at this point.

They probaly wanted to play Joe cole more, but his constant injuries and ineffectual play when he was fit have prevented that. Not only should Chelsea not give him his requested salary, they should offer him any sort of contract whatsoever as his services are no longer required. This is insane if you ask me. Parachute payments should go and the money redistributed more equally between the Championship clubs. I'm not sure I'm understanding you fully, but when you get rid of parachute payments, you end up with Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad.

It's not like Martins starts in the first place, but if Ricardo Fuller can so conclusively dominate him, than I'd fancy Oba. Actually, I do seriously hope Colo's found his feet, considering he;s starting for us next season.

I don't think either Yaya or Busquets is one of the top five best players in the world at their position. This will stand out when everyone else in midfield or attack is. That position is definitely their weakest along with probaly centreback.

Seems a weird signing for Chelsea. They have Essien and Obi who both fill the same role well. They need to be concerned with replacing Ballack and Deco instead of those two. SELL!!! (for a decent fee)

I'm just disappointed Argentina have dropped their defender who can't deal with strong, quick forwards. Would have been useful for our match against them.

Even Barcelona employ a Busquets, Toure, or Keita. There's no anchor in that team you put out. Great bet except for the part where we get put out. That's never happening, ever.

Neither of them look anything like Simpson, Routledge, Best, or Hall, though Theo Walcott is actually a good shout though. I'm astounded that someone has insinuated that Hughton prefers to sign other lightly-tinted black players.

That teams a bit physically weak, imo, Shola. Striking lack of power in the midfield. Senna was an important part of that team because he provided that.

The media tries to buy coke products from the Terry father? I distinctly remember the News of the World or some other bin-worthy paper sending an undercover reporter to buy drugs from Terry's father. The man is not in jail, so clearly it wasn't the police who caught him.

I don't know why your media is so keen on tearing the Terry family down. The guy is a rubbish, balding defender plaing at a level of football that is barely professional. I do not understand why the media feels the need to report this. Then again, I don't understand why they feel the need to try and buy coke and coke products from the the Terry father either.

A pisstake? I don't know, I just think there's something wrong in a world where 20 million pounds for James Milner is a "pisstake". He a good player, not a great one. I suppose since Villa paid a stupidly inflated price for him two years ago when he had accomplished nothing, they also wanted a stupidly inflated price. Another example of the ridiculous price for English players.

The players who just haven't been called up shouldn't count. Most of them are just aging/injured/in bad form players that have massive experience at this level. Have to consider the likes of Chamakh and Niang up front.

This is nonsense. The man has a salary of over 1 million USD for five bloody months (presumably for being white and foreign, as all he will do is the World Cup and some qualifiers before the contract expires), and now Euros want to act like we are not paying this man. If they weren't paying he wouldnt be there. Also, we don't have an FA....we have a football federation, which only serves to make this more erroneous. The rampant stupidity on display from CAF is shocking as always. Issa Hayatou has been president of CAF for longer than I have been alive, and clearly he has no clue. The day he leaves will be a good day for our football. How are we meant to do the qualifiers for 2013 in only one year? Maybe I am misnunderstanding, but apparently the qualifiers for the WC and the ACN will now be seperated. This means we have to play even more qualifying matches. After the disaster that was Angola 2010, is it really prudent to give Libya less time to prepare to host the ACN? I don't see how anyone benefits from a 2013 ACN, though I'm sure someone is pocketing money. I'm fine with it being in odd years though.

The boy can't even start for MLS? Good to know. There are some lunatics on the Nigerian forums who think he ought to displace same NT players starting every week in top European leagues.

I think Pompey steal this, Kanu to come on and skillfully bundle in the winner.