Former Golden Eaglets Assistant coach, Nduka Ugbade, has urged embattled manager of the English Premiership club, Arsene Wenger, not to frustrate Nigerian striker, Alex Iwobi, by redeploying him to the Arsenal’s junior team.
The Super Eagles striker was demoted by Wenger to play for Gunners’ Under-23 team on Monday, as a result, the player missed the main action in the senior team 0-3 loss to Crystal Palace same day.
Nigerian football followers were shocked to see their darling player in the Gunners’ feeder side on a day his services were needed mostly in the senior side.
He started the game and played for 90 minutes as Arsenal romped to a 5-2 victory against Reading junior team.
His participation in the game means he has no chance of playing for the seniors in the Premier League. Iwobi has been struggling with his pace in recent months.
He last hit the net in January’s 2-1 defeat to Watford and has paid the price for his sub-par displays. But Ugbade couldn’t believe Wenger’s decision. He said the demotion might be a temporary one for some reasons known to the Gunners’ manager.
“No! that can never be. For Iwobi to go back to Arsenal’s Team B. I don’t think that is what Wenger wanted to achieve. Iwobi is more important in the Arsenal’s first team. Wenger will be making silly mistake for redeploying him.
You can see how they lost woefully to the Palace. Iwobi is a fantastic player and we can’t allow Wenger to just rubbish one of our great players in the national team. I know that the decision means nothing to Iwobi because of his age. He may think that was part of Wenger’s game plans as he may be called upon on rescue mission anytime. I think Iwobi still belongs to the elite side. We are yet to see the end of the matter,”Ugbade told The Point.
The 1985 Golden Eaglets skipper also appealed to Nigerians to rally round the player and should not let him lose focuss. “Iwobi still has a long way to go. The player still has a future and great dreams.
He needs our support to overcome every problem. He is one of the players Gernot Rohr is using to achieve his goals in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and he is a national asset to Nigerians and by the grace of God, he will not fail,”Ugbade added. And despite the Wenger’s unfriendly approach, Iwobi seems to harbour no grudges over the development as he had words of support for the under-fire French manager.
“He (Wenger) is a great man in my opinion. I’d like him to stay. He’s always helped me and developed me as player.I don’t think it’s fair the way everybody criticises him. It’s very unfair considering what he’s done,” Iwobi said. Iwobi has scored three goals in 24 league appearances for Arsenal in the Premier League 39 this season
