Sports
Wenger Set To Continue At Arsenal
Tidesports source has gathered that Arsene Wenger is set to continue at Arsenal next season and will inform his backroom staff of his decision to stay at the club during the international break. Following the Gunners’ 3-1 defeat to West Bromwich Albion in the last league tie, Wenger admitted that he has already made a decision on his future.
Arsenal’s poor run has seen a section of supporters urge the board to not hand Wenger a new deal, whose current contract expires in the summer. According to the Daily Mail, the Frenchman is set to sign a new contract to extend his stay at the Emirates beyond this summer.
Wenger is also planning to overhaul the squad and will start by sanctioning the sale of his two star players, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. The Chilean international and the World Cup winner will have one year left on their contract after the end of this term and the duo has refused to sign a new deal.
Sanchez and Ozil’s commitment on the pitch has also been questioned and Wenger believes it is in the best interest of the club to part ways with the two players. In addition to this, the future of other Arsenal stars is in doubt and the list includes the likes of Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Lucas Perez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Wilshere is currently on a season-long loan at AFC Bournemouth and his compatriot Oxlade-Chamberlin has been linked with a move to Arsenal’s league rivals. The duo will also have one year left on their contract in the summer.
The Gunners’ boss has identified signing replacements for Sanchez and Ozil, along with bringing in a new left-back and a goalkeeper in the next transfer window. The Emirates club have identified Kieran Tierney of Celtic and AS Monaco’s Benjamin Mendy as the potential left-back targets.
In addition to this, Celtic star Moussa Dembele and Borussia Dortmund attacker Marco Reus have been identified as the players to replace Sanchez. Despite Wenger’s plans for the upcoming summer, the Arsenal boss could make a U-turn and step down from his post if the three-time Premier League winners fail to finish in top four or fail to win the FA Cup.
The north London side have managed three wins in the last nine matches played across all competitions. Out of the three wins, two came against the lower league side in the FA Cup.
Arsenal lost four of their last five league matches and their poor run has seen them drop out of the top four and get eliminated from the Champions League following a 10-2 aggregate defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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