The elusive Kelechi Nwakali

CH "I'll give up on a little quality for people who turn up for work every day".

Love it

 

And tbh, most fans will too

 

Yep, they absolutely do jump on it. A little turn, a 40 yard pass and a shimmy and he's a world beater. Nwakali was ***** 5 months ago, is ***** today and should be nowhere near our squad.

 

I completely agree with that but when he wasn’t starting before on here it felt like it was ‘he needs to start regardless of anything else he’s the best player at the club’

 

The thing is he never did anything that Herbie Kane couldn’t do but didn’t have anywhere near the all round game that Kane had. It was like they’d never seen a player who could pick a decent pass when Phillips was still at the club & Kane had only just left.

 

Completely agree.

I watched an U23’s game about a month or so before he broke into the team last season & he didn’t put much of a shift in at all. For someone who hadn’t played in months yet was supposedly fit there didn’t seem to be much desire to earn a place in the side.

 

He's Nigerian, a foreign name, played for Arsenal and a bit unknown. All about the promise and dream of us, for the first time in thirty years, plucking a bloke out of nowhere abroad and him being good.

Herbie Kane was criminally underrated, as is Phillips.

 

I’ve said it before with Nwakali that he’s brilliant on the ball with his touch, passing and vision but he’s woeful off the ball. I think when he first broke into the team, most saw his quality on the ball but it took a while to see how bad he is off the ball.

I could be completely wrong as I’ve never met him but he also doesn’t seem to “want it” enough. That could be doing him a disservice but I don’t think so. I bet he’s **** hot at 5 a side.

 

I wonder if he'll get <21 words when he goes?

 

The whole Nwalkali situation leaves a bitter taste to be honest

 

A good few months ago we read that some relative of his said that he had brought shame on the family by playing for us, a club in the 3rd tier in this country. He was obviously a massive talent at 17, when he won the Ballon d'Or and was subsequently signed by Arsenal. He has not had the kind of career which he was expected to have, and a lot of it is almost certainly down to his attitude. You need a very great deal of determination and a willingness to work very hard, in order to succeed at the highest levels of the game. Nwakali has clearly not shown the qualities which he needed to complement his talent. He's probably not been helped by those close to him. If they are asking him what on earth he is doing at Oakwell, he's probably thinking the same.

 

With all his apparently clear and obvious faults it makes you wonder why we gave him a 3 year contract at a time when we are losing several million quid a year.

 

Who doesn't turn up for work everyday? Who are the people that don't that? We do it for minimum wage. What kind of profession makes a distinction between those who turn up and those that don't? Ffs. Can we have a little of your quality Conor because we're all f***ing dying here and all we do is work and it doesn't even pay the bills.

Makes me sick.

 

I've heard we're after McKenzie Lemon from Forfar, it'll be even more bitter if that doesn't work out.

 

I've been in Kelechi's company a few times to be honest, admittedly it was when he first arrived at the club, he was very quiet kept himself to himself spent a lot of the time on his phone texting and only periodically looked up to take in the game, he'd played in a game a couple of days previously, scored I believe but for the life off him he couldn't remember who else had scored for us nor did he know the name of our player who'd given a penalty away late on in the game. He was very vague on the names of any of his team mates and to be honest cut a lone shadow sat away from his fellow colleagues, who were all sat together further down the stand
I got the feeling he was lost in himself and feeling lonely.
Which can happen to most ..Young lad miles from home, no family members around him
Personally I think we should cut him some slack
I think the attitude problem is possibly a failing on his part to being able to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings plus him being a quiet lad and not a larger than life character. Not one of the boys in an ego dominated profession/surroundings which the dressing room is.
I think he's one that needs an arm around him and encouraging rather than expecting him to be one of the lads. We've got a very good player on our hands who for me has retreated into his shell and needs encouragement rather than berating

Just my opinion

 

We're losing several million quid a year, because we spaff ridiculous sums of money like Nwakali's wages.

I was a fan of him, but after hearing bits and pieces I hope he never plays for us again.

Nobody will touch him on the wages he's getting at the minute. Unfortunately, he's the next Obbi Oulare.

 

If we are paying someone ridiculous wages who before us had never played a game of professional Football in England and fell out with his previous club, then we can add it to the list of club issues.

 

I’ve no idea what has or hasn’t gone off, and I stand by my earlier comments within the thread, in that I don’t think he’s suited to what we are trying to do.

But he’s a terrific little footballer and in the right setup I’m sure he’d thrive.

Let’s hope for a resolution that suits all parties.

 

Still a crazy decision to bring him in when we had Connell, Russell, Phillips, Benson, Craig, Hourihane & the supposedly highly rated Yoganathan & Bland already at the club as central midfielders.

But yet we saw fit to play the first half of the season with only one left wing back in Gent who was nowhere near ready until well into the season.

 

Don’t worry. This season we are going into it without a right back.

I really hope Maël performs well there. It worries me though.

I’m trying to get my head around it by comparing it to the back four under Stendel when promoted from this division. Where Cavare bombed on and Pinillos was more conservative. Maybe it’ll be like that, with Maël less risky and Ogbeta the one to join in upfield.