Segun Oluwaniyi

Coy is a very polite way of putting it. I would've been 100% fine with him immediately coming out saying he wants out, spend last few years of his career in the top flight etc. But he didn't. He f***ed us around with his bullshit press releases. Fully agree with that. Like I say I don't hold it against him, but I don't like when players play with the emotions of our supporters either. Otter, Colo and Enrique are 5 and 9 years younger, respectively. A year in the lower division won't seem anywhere as long to them as it will to Habib.

I think Beye should have left last summer and he shouldn't have been so coy about it. A player of his age and stature really has no business playing in the lower levels. He had to have known that he really only had one or two more attempts to play at the highest level. It is just unfortunate that Villa hasn't worked out for him. I think he would do well to return to Fracne next year and I'm sure many clubs would want him. I have nothing against him at all.

What other reason would a player have for leaving the country he was born in to play football? To play at a higher level. That's only applicable to people from small s*** leagues like Sweden, Hungary and so on, though. If it weren't for the massive disparities in money, England, Italy, Spain, France, etc. wouldn't be "higher level". Money has always been a massive part of the equation.

What other reason would a player have for leaving the country he was born in to play football?

Utaka plays for OB (Odense, Denmark)....he is their top goalscorer and they are heading for the title this year! He has been really class this year and he is on top of the topscorer list with 13 goals! He looks good and strong! Interesting to see him in a bigger league.....think he could do well in france, bundesliga or maybe in the PL. It's unfair of me to criticise him directly I guess. I don't watch the Danish league much. Really, I'm more angry at the fact that unless five or six players get injured, he has no chance of making the World Cup. This is the last friendly before World Cup camp commences. Why are we playing sub standard opposition, and putting out a team of players that will most likely not be headed to South Africa. The WC is in three months!

Exactly, we shouldn't be changing the rules of football just because Ridgewell is something of an idiot.

Braaten is Jonasish in my opinion (Not as good though). Great player physically and runs around alot, but doesn't produce much in terms of goals and assists. Mid-table Ligue 1 is about his level.

Freddy Adu has Nii Lamptey syndrome. Tiny Ghanaian man posing as an adolescent who can't cut it with the big men

Thank everyone for the information on Lagerback. Nigeria beat DR Dongo 5-2 in the most meaningless friendly of all -time in Abuja. Only God knows how this is helping us prepare for the World Cup. How to we go from a top tier match against Paraguay to a bunch of reserves playing a middle tier African side. We played Utaka upfront for God's sake. Not even John Utaka at Pompey, but his even more rubbish younger brother who plays in bloody Sweden! If I knew they were trying out randoms, I would have flown over and played centreback.

I think the Sin Bin is stupidity of the highest level. Just my opinion, though. I believe the current offside rule is perfect and ideal. The problem is that it is just very difficult to officiate. :lol:

agreed. do something about the diving before you tamper w/ scrapping the offsides rule. imo, the modern game of fottball has (d)evolved past the effectiveness of the gentlemen's rules of association football. now that there's big money at stake, fair play has gone out the window--just ask thierry henry. something needs done about the yellow/red card system first. Maybe it is just me, but I would never change the yellow and red card system. Love it or hate it, that is football, imo. Same with offsides.

I don't see how hockey applies in anyway to football though. Hockey is a much faster game played in a much smaller area.

It simply is not football without the offsides. Have any of you ever played in a recreational match with old people who spend the entire match in the other teams penalty box? It is awful. They may as well get rid of handball ruling as well.

Lack of glamour isn't what is stopping players from going to Germany. It is the lower wages that are doing that. It is nice to play in front of 70, 00 every week, but that's not worth giving up half your wage for. As long as German clubs stay financially prudent, there is no way they can compete in the modern market. Isn't their prudency sort of enforced by the German FA? That doesn't allow them to get in much debt or they will be relegated from the Bundesliga. Not a bad approach if done Europe-wide, mind. I wouldn't know, man, but that sounds fantastic. One can only wish that the spineless UEFA would implement something like that. I don't see the harm in using 2016 or something as a date by which all leagues must conform. The problem is that no one is going to self correct the problems while the CL pot of gold is still sitting there and being taken by the most financially reckless teams. It's similar to the banking industry really. You just hope it doesn't take a collapse of similar proportions to set things straight.

Lack of glamour isn't what is stopping players from going to Germany. It is the lower wages that are doing that. It is nice to play in front of 70, 00 every week, but that's not worth giving up half your wage for. As long as German clubs stay financially prudent, there is no way they can compete in the modern market.

I found a relevant, if quite old, article on the matter: Chelsea’s attendance quandary A quick analysis of low attendance at Chelsea Attendances at Chelsea’s games have been volatile – despite an impressive and undefeated start to the season. We’ve had a look into what’s behind this trend and whether it should be a concern to Chelsea – or indeed to English football. So what’s the problem? Chelsea’s average premiership attendance for their first four Premiership home games of the year – 41,845 – is, in fact, 98.6% of their capacity – fifth when ranked by this criterion and above their average for last year (97.2%). However, in the UEFA Champions league and the Carling Cup attendances were 77.9% and 61% of capacity respectively – averaging just fewer than 31,000. Chelsea’s attendance during last year’s six home Champions’ League games averaged 93% of capacity – so even if they sold out all their remaining European games, they could only just equal that figure this year. More worryingly for Chelsea, these falls are large in comparison to their competitors. Arsenal and Manchester United have only played a handful of home games outside Premiership but attendances have only slipped to around 90% of capacity – and are comparable with last year’s levels. The same is largely true for the other big teams in Europe including Juventus, Milan and Real where attendances compare well their domestic competitions. The argument goes that Chelsea are boring and this is affecting attendances – but this isn’t backed up by the stats – in terms of goals and shots on goal Chelsea have more than any other team and besides, if true, this would surely also affect their Premiership attendance. So what is the explanation? Research has looked into attendance levels and identified factors like proximity to large conurbations and a team’s historical as the fundamentals. At the margin, other factors like prices, the opposition league position (and their physical proximity) also play a part. When comparing these factors with the same time last year there’s one significant change – fans’ perception of Chelsea’s quality. Models suggests that, when all else is equal, attendance is driven by the similarity in quality between two sides, so, in part, Chelsea are a victim of their own success. Still, whilst it’s largely just a Chelsea problem, the worst is over for this year. Chelsea’s remaining home Champion’s league game is against Liverpool and they are now out of the Carling Cup. Still, for the FA cup – and for next year’s competitions – Chelsea will need to look hard at their pricing strategy. Not only does low attendance affect revenue, the loss of atmosphere also damages the quality of the experience for players and fans alike. If this perception grows there is the risk that a couple of one-off’s could turn into a more serious problem. ------------------ Chelsea have been a bit notorious for pricing some fans out and having low attendance in non-Premiership games.

If you come up for enough corners and freekicks (which we shouold get plenty off being the top team in the league), the ball will eventually bounce off your arse and into the net. It will happen at some point.

Chelsea struggle to sell out tickets for most matches. I don't think spending all that money to upgrade their facility would be worth it, until there is a point where the demand for tickets greatly outweighs the supply of seats, like we saw with Arsenal. Otherwise, it just isn't smart.

You think a list like this would stay relatively stagnant over time, except for teams with massive benefactors like Man City who will occasionally invade. All the teams in the top 15 have massive stadiums and consistently qualify for European competition. You don't see anything immediate happening to change that. You could of course also follow the Newcastle model of having 53, 000 idiots willing to pay god money to watch abject failure.

:lol:

I think the vast majority of teams have players that do this. It really is an individual decision of how much you care for you body and your career. Unless we have a Michael Johnson situation I don't think the club has jurisdiction to interfere there.

Unusual place for a Nigerian living in the USA to go. I know. My father went on business and I came along. Really felt uncomfortable standing out that much. I like Ukrainians alot, not such a big fan of the country itself. (or at least Donetsk).

I've been to Donetsk, and if Sunderland is anything like that it should destroyed for the good of Britain.

I don't think so (Don't know who his mate is, tbh.) He's being assisted by Austin Eguavoen, who was recently the manager.

Feel very bad for Ramsey and wish him well. Arsenal supporters (foreign ones anyway) are ridiculous. My cousin called me after it happened claiming that Shawcross should be charge with assault or GBH. He said that there was criminal intent as Stoke had stated their intention to "rough up" the Arsenal players. As he said, "manslaughter is accidental. This was intentional. This is murder." I've read similar things online. That is a team and a group of fans that play the victim card too much.