Segun Oluwaniyi

Great match between Algeria and Zimbabwe. With all of Algeria's star power, the best on the pitch has been Billiat of Mamelodi Sundowns. Real quality and Zimbabwe look a a legitimately decent side. They are usually dwarfed by West and North Africa, but there is talent in the south as Zambia proved five years ago.

Genuinely bizarre to see Pogba's face flashing around the pitch.

City (and several of their players) have noticeably regressed this season under Guardiola. His style of play suits maybe three or four players that played today in blue.

The money they are lobbying for was due to the players nearly two years ago, when they finished third in the previous ACON. The lack of respect towards the players can be staggering at times. This money is obviously lining the pocket and some fat, useless administrator. This, along with the absence of Bolasie with long term injury limits expectation a bit in advance of the first match against Morocco on Monday. Still, I have high hopes for the team. We have enough physicality and skill to match anyone in the tournament and the potential to go far, regardless.

I agree with your comments regarding the format and there being obvious better alternatives, but why is the World Cup expansion 'necessary'? That may be a strong word to use, the World Cup can obviously continue in the same format with no problem. With the incentives on the table, the move toward expansion was always "inevitable", maybe this is a superior word. Right now, we have competitive qualifiers, but this benefits no one. No one is making money from African giants clashing early in winner take all groups, teams struggling through the grind of South America, European powers being relegated to attempts to qualify via playoff, or a difficult North American hex. If there is more money to be made by FIFA and networks showing these matches, while maintaining competitive balance, that will always be the option taken.

Do players in their twenties with 100+ Premiership appearances, caps for their national team, and English nationality move for modest fees?

Is it really still growing? I know China are getting in on the act and so on, but it's seemed to me that in football's bedrock of Europe its popularity is finally waning in terms of attendances and TV viewing figures. I've got the impression that the bubble bursting is getting nearer and nearer. My statement about growth was primarily focused on Asia. The largest population center in the world, with five of the thirteen leaders in nominal GDP (economy size) only having four guaranteed places currently. Europe, Africa, and South America have already reached saturation point, football cannot "grow" anymore in these places. It is already king with no viable challenger. However TV markets can grow, and you will see this throughout Africa, North America, Asia, developing parts of Europe, etc.

Expansion of the World Cup was always likely and probably necessary. The game is growing and I don't really think there will be a significant drop in the quality of the sides. There seems to be a good amount of competition in each federation and decent sides that will not qualify for 2018. Considering this with the money to be made from more matches and it makes too much sense to ignore. The format, however, is complete rubbish. It is possible to expand without bastardising the whole process. Why not have a 40 team tournament with 8 groups of 5 (two advancing from each group)? This only adds one match and creates and interesting dynamic with the group permutations. If we must have 48 teams, why not 12 groups of 4 (two advancing), with either the sides with the 8 best group records being rewarded with a "bye" (to the knockout round of 16) or the 8 best third placed teams qualifying for a round of 32, like in the Euro? All of these formats only add one match, while maintaining the symmetry of a tournament. FIFA hve somehow managed to select the single worst format available to them.

No. In fact, most children are quite helpless at this age, Ronaldo.

I had a newborn today. Probable consequence of a 3-1 defeat to Southampton last April. Sorry to hear about that. Kids basically f*** up life. Chin up though (Unless you wanted one then well done) Congratulations and commiserations all in one. Small children are very interesting. If I am honest, my young one has not made any real positive contributions in his twenty or so months with us so far, but the love and bond shared by him with the wife and I is immeasurably strong. I wish you the same affection James. May you enjoy the adventure of fatherhood. I believe Hatem will see out the rest of this season playing sparingly for PSG and then move to either the Premiership or China. My prediction would lean towards the latter, tbh.

There seems to be a ludicrous amount of Anglo-Nigerian youth (who either came over as children like Moses, Iwobi or were born in England like Alli and the boys above) coming through clubs recently. My pet hate is drawing a club from the same division in the early rounds of the FA Cup. Matches like Everton-Leicester or Birmingham-Newcastle just seem like watered down versions of normal league matches without adequate television coverage. The fun of the FA Cup early rounds is searching for dodgy highlights of a scrappy 2-1 win against Torquay or someone like this.

This is a completely false idea of what happened in 2005. Obi was eighteen and was essentially controlled by John Shittu and also fell victim to some dealings by agents controlling him and shady actors at Lyn Oslo. The confusion being that he signed for one club, but agents, etc signed him for another. How you use this incident from twelve years ago as any sort of judgement about anything is something well beyond my mental capabilities. I doubt he was doing some sort of ridiculous side by side comparison of the squads at that age having played only a handful of matches in Norway in the entirety of his professional career. He missed out a year because of this confusion, then showed up to Chelsea fat and out of condition, only for Jose to immediately integrate him and give him 42 appearances. But I am sure Man U would have "given him more chances off the bat". I have no qualms about people disliking the type of player he was. Physicality, cynicism, and common sense play featured heavily in his club career ( though not so much in his play for his country) and these are not beautiful qualities enjoyed by all. I don't understand the disrespectful nature of your commentary. MJO/JMO is respected at all levels of the footballing community, idolised in his country (despite you and your mates), and nowhere near done, especially for SE where I look forward to him leading them to 2018 and nurturing the likes of Iheanacho, Iwobi, etc. Stop sipping Haterade. Messi too. Class of '87 all of them.

I will speak for the other 180 million or so people of Nigeria and tell you that you have no idea what you are talking about. It is not "Kaka" who decides for Nigeria, I assure you. He is massively important to the sport in my country and an icon to those that actually live in the country. He hardly "bummed it up" either, but I am not going to rehash that part of the argument. Mikel was never going to play the same role he did at U-20, where he dominated primarily because of his incredible strength. His destiny was always deeper, especially as a physically slow player in the fastest league around. His creative stylings are much more easily expressed in the extremely physical, but slow paced world of African footballer, and consequently Obi has played a much more creative role there. It is not his fault that Nigeria did not pair him top-level creative talent until the emergence of Iwobi recently. In summary, this small boy from Jos has managed to maintain a wildly successful club career while also being his country's best player for the better part of a decade despite playing in an entirely different position. Of course, this is not enough for internet experts who seem to have intimate knowledge of what he should or should not be doing. People who think that they can decipher the "desire" of someone by decisions made at an age when most are wasting their parent's time and failing with women. Instead of focusing on this specious nonsense, I will focus on the tangible results, which loudly and affirmatively speak for themselves.

I honestly do not know what manner of f***ing rubbish you are talking now. The guy has toiled for his cause under a litany of different managers and made 30+ appearances in all but one season (including the previous one). He has never been a bit-part player, and at worst was someone who was used situationally and served his purpose extremely well. Nigerians have some festishistic vision of him being this world beating #10 because of one tournament they watched in 2005, but in reality he is a lumbering giant who has leveraged his physical strength, remarkable composure, and intelligent understanding of the game into a brilliant career at the highest level. In addition to winning everything there is possible to win as a Premiership footballer, he has served his country manfully over the course of twelve years, despite still being in his twenties. When Nigeria has asked him to play #10, he did it. When Naija have asked to sit back he has done this too. When NFF stranded his team in Atlanta, he paid bills and stood up for his teammates. But people are never satisfied. For Mikel the man, I have no problem with this move. He is happy with a full trophy case, a sexually attractive Russian wife, and two young children. As someone that supports Nigerian football, it would be a shame to see our best player, the leader of a young national team (someone that the likes of Iheanacho and Iwobi look up to and admire), and a brilliant ambassador for our football willfully marginalise himself. On that front, I can only hope these are false reports.

I haven't watched much outside of highlights, obviously, so I defer to people at the matches if things have deteriorated that much. Just from a perspective of the squad, it is sorely lacking in the players that can actual possess the ball and do something progressive with it. There is a lot of space to take advantage of at this level, and still there is a struggle for creativity.

Selling Mitrovic and bringing in someone like Nahki Wells (Huddersfield may not sell, but I like the player quite a bit and think he could perform in the Premiership) would be very good business, imo. Mitro is still young, has a decent reputation, and performs for his national team, so you would think there would be good offers for him. The central midfield is something that needs addressing not so much for this season ( I believe this will right itself when Shelvey returns), but the next one, if NUFC is assuming that promotion is a probable outcome. Imo, none of the players in those positions are ones I would trust to perform at the higher level. Colback and Tiote are average, Hayden is young, Diame is underwhelming, and Shelvey's abilities may not cover his liabilities at that level. This entire section of the team needs to be revamped, and it would be wise to start now, while players can bed in and adjust.

Have you ever seen your surname anglicised? I mean, plenty of people just abbreviate it after about the fifth or sixth botched attempt. That is their prerogative, though. My name is my name.

"Lookman" is an Arabic name, but if you are Nigerian and a Yoruba as his parents are it will definitely be "Lukman" or "Luqman" so obviously the name has been changed. Ibe is Igbo and would be two syllables "EE-BAY". I don't have a problem with it, tbh. It is just funny to hear. I would understand it more if they had surnames like my own that Europeans always struggle with, but those are simple names.

Correct. He was acceptable at Man U, until Risse from Liverpool managed to shatter his leg with a shot. He never recovered and NUFC bought the damaged goods, as per usual in that era of the club.

Lookman ffs I think that surpasses Ibe ("Aiyb") in terms of wildly unnecessary anglicisation of a name. It is. Despite that summary, I still do wonder about the sustainability. Even if everyone's dream come to fruition and the government continues to heavily bankroll the football program while wealthy owners and massive corporations are willing to prop up these new clubs ad infinitum, I just cannot forsee how this can ever become vaguely profitable in the relative short term or even long term in a way that will produce a justifiable return on these levels of spending, even with massively increased revenue streams in the growing Chinese market. If the success of the league and its continued ability to attract stars is primarily based around the willingness of the CPC and wealthy actors to set massive amounts renminbi alight, it just raises questions, imo.

Very much so given Aguero scored a double against the same side about a month ago and Pep did not see fit to start Iheanacho when Ageuro was banned. The quality throughout the festive period has seemed poor.

Boro are the worst team to watch entertainment-wise in the PL. Could do with a Leicester goal to make it a better game There is nothing even vaguely intriguing about this Boro team. I suppose the purpose of this season is just to survive by all means necessary (which they look on the way to achieving), but they add nothing to the division.

He didn't inherit a good situation at all but he also didn't have them showing any kind of improvement. It's a shame because he is a highly-respectable manager and he'll never be given another chance in the country, while complete and utter s*** like Pardew continue getting looks. Media also treated him like absolute s*** when he started and they seemed to be rooting for his failure. American, no PL experience, says the word "soccer", makes fun of his attire. All pretty pathetic tbh. Regarding his performance, he stepped into a terrible situation, surely worked his bollocks off and didn't get it done, so the sacking while harsh, totally get it. I wanted Bradley to succeed, but let us be honest here, there is nothing at all harsh about this sacking. BB has been a disaster of Carverian proportions who has made the team demonstrably worse. In the eleven matches Bradley took charge of, Swansea conceded 3 or more goals in EIGHT of them. There were being embarrassed on a regular basis. Someone who performs this badly has not earned the right to a transfer window for improvement. I wish the man well in his future endeavours.

Ndong :lol:

It is idiotic that there is so much more emphasis placed on nationality/race than every other aspect of a human being, but the actions of Shelvey are much more idiotic, which is not overly surprising given the player. He has played well at a lower standard after his abhorrent performances at the highest level last season, so one would hope this used as an opportunity for Jonjo to finish maturing a bit.