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There have been immense commentaries from Nigerians over the outcome of Wednesday's English Premiership game between Arsenal and Manchester United at Highbury.

Of great significance and interest is the excitement from the women and it says a lot about the quality of talents in both teams and of course the technical savvy exhibited by both coaches depending on the side you support.

As the game rolled through its duration, my joy leapt to the sky when Arsene Wenger introduced Nwankwo Kanu. With the litany injuries on the Gunners' side, it was just appropriate for Kanu to fill the voids created.

What stood out clearly is that Wenger fields the best of his stars not minding where such stars come from.

I hope that some Nigerians can appreciate that fact and stop this nonsense of tagging Wenger as either a tribalist or one who wants to frustrate Kanu's career.

What I expect these Nigerians to say is to urge Kanu to step up his game and join the league of foreigners in the English Premiership who strut their trade weekly.

Yes, Kanu has what it takes to battle for shirts at Arsenal but he must be reminded that the best of any player is seen when the terrain is as loaded as what we find at Arsenal.

Easily, our Eastern brothers have made Wenger look as a proponent of tribalism and I'm sure that they know better with the quality of game seen on Wednesday night from those players that were selected ahead of Kanu.

Talking about my eastern brothers and their concern for one of their own reminds me of the current debate on getting a foreign coach for the Super Eagles.

Not one of those who are clamouring for the retention of Christian Chukwu as the team's chief coach has answered the question if the coach did not accept that he would work under a foreigner.

If Chukwu knew that he would record such success story after his failed bid in Kenya, he would not have accepted to play second fiddle like he did when he was asked to work under Shuaibu Amodu.

But for Segun Odegbami's clout with the sports minister, Chukwu would not have been the coach of the Eagles in the first place if the parameters listed by the interview panel were followed strictly.

Chukwu's coaching antecedents before getting the Eagles job was that of failure and only in a polity as ours would he have been chosen.

Beyond the fact that it has been written that Chukwu would have a foreign boss, is the quality of training that he gives to the players at short notice. And it would interest those against the recruitment of a foreign coach, that some of the big boys in the Eagles are up-arms asking the NFA to get them a good coach if the country must do well at the 2006 World Cup competition to be held in Germany. In fact, Austin Okocha could not hide his disdain over the type of players that Chukwu fielded on the flanks against Malawi in Blantyre.

Okocha surely knew what he was saying just as he complained about the arrangement of men in the team's central attack. Only Okocha has been able to challenge our inept coaches and that is because he has the type of followership among Nigerians that can send any coach packing when put to vote.

Pray, Okocha was not comfortable with the over reliance on him in the middle especially the aspect of getting ball winners in the Eagles.

Of course, he know what he is saying after what he went through at the Japan 2002 World Cup competition with the mundane tactics taught by the Modakeke chief.

No team wins any trophy with a predictable midfield arrangement and a blunt attack like we have seen the Eagles exhibit in the nine games under Chukwu.

Let me quickly remind Chukwu's spin-doctors that the primary reason why Amodu fell out with that irritant Dutch coach was because he was accused of not recommending the best home-based players to him. Yet each time Amodu prosecuted matches for the country ahead securing the Mali 2002 Africa Nations Cup ticket, he always fielded home-based players that won matches outside this country.

Let any of these Chukwu's spindoctors tell me one player that the coach has introduced into the Eagles after nine matches. What he has been doing is to recycle some of the players whom at one time or the other had played for the Eagles.

How many Nigerians would tell me that he/she knew that Yobo Joseph, Friday Christopher would have the better of George Opong Weah when the Eagles filed out in Port Harcourt against Liberia? Who would have thought that Finidi George would function effectively in the midfield after a long spell away from that position but for Amodu's gamble? Or would anyone had thought that playing Julius Aghahowa on the right flank inorder to have an attacking onslaught of Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Victor Agali in the battle of Omdurman would have guaranteed victory for the Eagles? How about the new players Amodu gambled on in that match that even the captain of the team were alleged to have avoided for fear of defeat? Or the new players that Amodu fielded when Nigeria beat Eritrea 1-0 in Benin City even when some of the big boys invited for the game were in the country gallivanting?

Or was it not in that game that Ifeanyi Udeze got his break in the left wing back position? How many people remembered Udeze as a left wing back after his exploits in Fanny Amun's conquering Golden Eaglets of the Meridien Cup? Those celebrating Yobo, as a right back or even in the heart of the defence must ask which coach played him in those positions for Nigerians to see? Pray that honour go to Amodu especially when Isaac Okoronkwo could not make the team due to injuries or card offences.

Regular readers of my column would know that I'm not an Amodu apologist with the many scathing comments on him until he failed in Mali. Even the immutable Larry Izamoje was shocked that I could describe Amodu as a feeding bottle coach among the many jabs I gave to the coach.

Nigeria first won an away game after a long while when Amodu's homebred Eagles beat Gabon 2-0 with Austin Ejide being the man-of-the-match after stopping a penalty. Amodu repeated that feat when his admixture of home and fringe foreign-based players beat Namibia 2-0 at home.

Yes, even the departed Engineer Ishaya Mark Aku and indeed Nigerians savored the sweetness of the fluid display the Eagles exhibited in Omdurman culminating in the 4-0 thumbing of the Sudanese.

The Eagles midfield arrangement of Karibe Ojigwe, Justice Christopher brought out the best in Okocha. After that Sudanese game, Amodu had successfully played Christopher in left back, right back and central midfield. How about pairing Okoronkwo with Eric Ejiofor? Little wonder there was tremendous resentment among Nigerians when Amodu allowed the absconding players to play the final qualification game against Ghana in Port Harcourt.

I have refused to talk about the landmines that laid Amodu's path enroute securing these victories especially that before the Mali 2002 Nations Cup where the players insisted on having their money given by Nigerians for securing the 2002 World Cup ticket.

I have gone into the history books in order to shut the traps of Chukwu and his spin-doctors over the celebration of handling the Eagles through nine matches unbeaten.

The only time Amodu lost a game was when an admixture of the home and foreign legion played two matches against South Korea in one of the two stadia used for the 2002 World Cup competition. Nigeria drew the first game 2-2 and lost the second 3-2 in controversial circumstances as seen on television clips that I watch regularly at home.

Amodu handled the Eagles through all the qualifying games in the 2002 Nations Cup unbeaten. Can somebody tell Chukwu's lackeys that Amodu used homebred players to beat Malawi 3-2 in Kano and 4-1 in Port Harcourt? So Chukwu and his trumpeters must shut up because in achieving these Nations Cup feats, Amodu used predominantly homebred players that Chukwu dares not attempt.

Only a coach with Chukwu's intellect would tell anyone that he was told that Okocha's disallowed goal was an indirect kick in a game that he sat on the bench as Okocha's coach.

It explains why Chukwu keeps fielding Oge Ileagu in Eagles matches when he cannot tie down a first team shirt in Enugu Rangers.

What would Chukwu's henchmen say of the coach's intellect and personality against the background that he was sent to London to visit our players only to sit in his hotel room and make telephone calls?

Chukwu even had the temerity to say that he would ban Celestine Babayaro from the Eagles for failing to reply any of the 11 telephone messages that he left on the handset. What a coach with inferiority complex that some people want Nigeria to retain as chief coach?

It is not enough for a team to remain unbeaten like we saw when Adegboye Onigbinde was in charge before the 2002 World Cup. What counts is the quality of play the team exhibits during matches.

What counts like we saw at the World Cup is consistence especially against teams with better players than ours. If Nigeria went to the World Cup with a competent foreign coach; the Eagles would have qualified for the second round with the kind of friendly games we played before the competition.

Those who have contrary views must tell me how well the Eagles prepared before the 1998 World Cup competition. Yet they beat highly rated Spain to the consternation of bookies in France.

That was a team that had retirees like Peter Rufai, Rashidi Yekini, Benedict Iroha, and orthopedic players like Emmanuel Amuneke, Daniel Amokachi and recuperating Nwankwo Kanu.

In spite of these odds, Bora Militinovic guided the Eagles through two victories that we even had the impudence to field a second team against Paraguay in Toulouse France.

Had Ike Shorunmu not broken his hand, Nigeria may have qualified for the quarterfinal because Rufai was our albatross against Denmark and of course during the two group matches that he manned the goalpost.

Verily, verily I say unto those who want the game to grow that we need a first class foreign coach and let us see how CAF would ignore our players in the 2003 award night.

Ha... ha... ha... Did Chukwu say he has handled nine matches? Pray did he also include Nigeria's 2-2 draw against Senegal in Dakar with Eguavoen sitting on the bench? Or was it not that game that Chukwu dodged under the guise of going to spy on the Malawians in Angola? What a coach who does not know how many matches he has partaken in. I rest my case!

Coaches Anyansi, Orji Kalu

If a foreigner had entered Nigeria last weekend and bothered to read the sports pages of Nigerian papers, he/she would have thought that Enyimba FC's coaches were Felix Anyansi and Orji Uzor Kalu.

Such was the trend among most Nigerian sport writers that did a preview on the Africa Champions League game between Enyimba and their Guinean counterparts Satellites FC.

Conspicuously missing was a preview or comments from the team's coach Ikhana Kadiri. I have taken pains to read some of the reviews and I still cannot find any word from Kadiri except that done by Complete Sports' Nnamdi Ezekute. What stands out clearly is that when the team has a poor outing, we should be bold enough to name Anyansi and Orji Kalu in our analysis.

I have nothing against both men's dominance of the affairs of the team but I dare say that my colleagues in the press should strive to give unto Ceasar what is Caesars.

Nigerians that follow foreign leagues would easily tell the names of the coaches and players. Not a few can tell you who the chairmen of these clubs are.

That is the trend globally, hence sports writers in Nigeria must begin to celebrate our players and coaches lest the quest for the top glories would continue to elude us at the continental level.

Again, I'm not excited that Enyimba players were paid N30, 000 each for beating the Guineans. My joy would have risen to the high heavens had I been told that governor Orji Uzor Kalu had delivered on his promise the cars he offered the players for winning the Pepsi Cup two seasons ago. Not until governor Kalu fulfills this promise, all that would be done to motivate Enyimba players would amount to pouring water on sand.