What I’m refereeing too here is the wheeling and dealings in players by the various clubs jockeying to get themselves in the best possible position to mount either a serious challenge for the title or just staying in the top flight; in short the transfer window.
The transfer window which usually lasts two months (in pre-season July 1 – August 31) and one month (mid-season Jan 1-31) is often an indication of how ambitious or otherwise a club will be in the season.
For instance, Arsenal fans often squirm when the window closes at midnight of August 31 without manager Arsene Wenger landing any marquee signing to the Emirates. They watch with envy as more “ambitious” sides like Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United go the extra mile in bringing in top talent to bolster their teams.
And over the years the results of their wheeling and dealing have been there for all to see – Chelsea ending a 50-year wait for the title in 2005 and Manchester City doing same two seasons ago.
On the other hand, while Wenger has kept making money for the Gunners he has not brought any silverware to the club in eight years.
However, while this may be a sour point for many Arsenal fans, the wider implication of the current transfer window is the clear lack of the names of Nigerian footballers being mentioned with any of the big teams!
By implication this means that we no longer producing the quality players the clubs want and this has already started to impact adversely on our national team.
Yes, we may have just won the African Cup of Nations, but as I pointed out last week, the Confederations Cup has exposed us as being just “local champions” – unable to compete with the “big boys” on a bigger stage.
Many of us remember with nostalgia how even in our very first outing at the world stage, USA’94, the Eagles were able to reach the second round, where they were only seconds away from eliminating World Cup finalists, Italy.
We were able to build up on these two years later by becoming the first African nation to win the football event of the Olympics at Atlanta’96.
The momentum carried on all the way to France’98 when the Eagles were able to come from behind to beat European football powerhouse, Spain 3-2 before imploding against Denmark in the second round.
One major reason for this was the fact that many of our national team players were featuring in the biggest clubs in the world and so had no fear squaring up to the ‘big boys’.
For instance Sunday Oliseh played with such clubs like Ajax, Juventus and Dortmund, forward, Rashidi Yekini was with Vitoria Setubal in Portugal, Victor Ikpeba was in Monaco while Taribo West wore the colours of both Inter and AC Milan.
Now what we have are Victor Moses and John Obi Mikel (who appears to be on his way out) as our two biggest stars because they are playing with Chelsea, while Efe Ambrose stars for Celtic in Scotland and Elderson Echiejile in Portugal with Braga.
Others are playing in Russia, Turkey, Israel and Ukraine, which are not really in the same league (literarily) as those of England, Spain, Italy and Germany. But because we no longer have the quality for Western Europe our players are now forced to gravitate to the less demanding Eastern part.
Imagine almost five months after our Nations Cup victory we are yet to hear of a Liverpool or Inter Milan or Dortmund showing any interest in our players.
These are clearly trying times for our national team. We are likely to feel the impact of this with the insipid performances of our Eagles when they come up against quality opposition because at the end of the day there is no substitute for the experience and professionalism playing in big teams brings to the national team.
Nigeria’s most successful manager, Clemens Westerhof quickly realised this and made it a point of duty to only invite players plying their trade in top sides in Europe – and the results are there for all to see.
Unless a miracle happens, I don’t envy Stephen Keshi, who incidentally played under the Dutch manger, because at the end of the day he can only work with the quality (or lack of it) of players he has available to him.
And if the Confederations Cup is anything to go by, then what will happen at Brazil 2014 should we eventually make it?
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