Category: Sports

West Bromwich Albion are bracing themselves for major interest in Peter Osaze Odemwingie as the loan transfer window re-opens.

Reports suggest Crystal Palace have lined up an audacious move for Osaze. The Eagles are willing to pay an initial loan fee to Albion for the 31-year-old forward, with a view to making his deal permanent in the summer if they are promoted to the Premier League.

Whether or not Palace could afford his £39,000-a-week salary during this period remains to be seen – they might seek help from Albion – but the Londoners have received £15million from the sale of Wilfried Zaha to Manchester United.

Although Osaze is still regarded as a major first-team player for Albion, Steve Clarke is well aware that the player’s actions during his on-off transfer saga with Queens Park Rangers have not gone down well inside his dressing room.

However, it remains to be seen whether the Nigeria international would fancy a move to play in the Championship, not least as his move to Queens Park Rangers was mainly motivated by a huge salary near to £70,000-a-week. His exit would also significantly weaken Albion’s squad.

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace boss Ian Holloway has revealed that Odemwingie has been offered to Palace on loan, but doesn’t think it’s likely to happen.

At his Friday press conference at the Eagles’ training ground, he said: “I haven’t got a clue about that. Someone contacted the chairman. I was asked would I want him? I said yes.

“I don’t really think that’s a realistic target for us personally.”

Tunde Disu, a former Flying Eagles Coach, on Wednesday commended the performance of home-based players with the Super Eagles at the ongoing African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in South Africa.

Disu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the players had given a good account of themselves at the continent’s flagship football tournament.

He said the idea of having a blend of domestic league players, and Europe-based professionals in the team, had turned out to be workable enterprise.

NAN recalls that Stephen Keshi included six home-based professional players, in his 23-man squad for the AFCON.

“Keshi’s experiment has worked, even though it took a while before the team could hit its stride. They now know when to defend and attack, using the 4-3-3 formation, and the home-based players have shown that they deserved to be in the team,” he said.

Disu, who was also a former Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), told NAN that the inclusion of home-based players in the team would inspire others to perform better.

“The skill and confidence the players have exuded in a tournament of the magnitude of the AFCON will no doubt inspire the country’s domestic league players to step up their play.

“And the clubs in the domestic league will benefit from the development, because their players will play better for possible invitation to the national team.

“An exceptional performance by these players will certainly attract the attention of foreign clubs across the world,” he added.

In a match marred by poor refereeing it was poetic justice for Burkino Faso, as they beat the Black Stars of Ghana on penalties in their Africa Cup of Nations semi-final.

Burkina Faso made three changes to their starting line-up from the match against Togo, with captain Moumouni Dagano, Issouf Ouattara and Wilfried Sanou dropping to the bench and striker Aristide Bance – who had a stormer of a match – and midfielders Florent Rouamba and Prejuce Nakoulma taking their place.

For Ghana, midfielder Mubarak Wakaso was awarded a start following a good performance against Cape Verde in the quarter-finals.

Shortly after the start Burkina Faso had a penalty shout when Jonathan Pitroipa was pushed over in the area by his Rennes clubmate John Boye, but the referee was not interested.

John Pantsil pulled up mid-stride with what looked like a hamstring injury shortly afterwards, and was replaced by Solomon Asante on 10 minutes.

13 minutes in Ghana took the lead through a penalty, after an innocuous-looking challenge from Mady Panandetiguiri on Christian Atsu. Wakaso converted to give the Black Stars the lead, although the crowd where insistent that Pitroipa’s shout was stronger.

Pitroipa continued to look dangerous for Burkina Faso, almost creating a chance every time he was on the ball, while Wakaso had another chance for Ghana, trying a shot from range that was kept out by the good judgement of Daouda Diakite.

Nakoulma had the best chance of the half for the Burkinabe, hitting wide when he should have forced a save from Ghana keeper Fatau Dauda.

Asante then should have made it 2-0 just before half-time, after some great work by Kwadwo Asamoah on the left, but the Berekum Chelsea man hit over the bar from 10 metres out.

Just after half-time Bance came close with a header, which was palmed away by Dauda, and Asamoah Gyan hit the woodwork with a toe-poke in the area a few minutes later.

But Burkino Faso got the equaliser shortly after, taking advantage of a rare chance, with Bance keeping his cool to hit home from 40 metres out.

Shortly after that Bance was in the thick of things once again, sending a free-kick narrowly wide.

Bizarre scenes followed when Gyan sent a header over the bar, and then fell to the ground and was kicked in the groin by Paul Koulibaly, who was lucky to get away with a yellow.