Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
Senegal despite finishing bottom of their group at the African Cup of Nations do have a good squad of players at the moment and should in all theory stand a good chance of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
They have a abundance of options up front with Newcastle United’s front-two of Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse being backed by good strikers in Fenerbache’s Moussa Sow and former Marseille forward Mamadou Niang.
One player who has been a constant in the Lions squad since 2005 has been Birmingham City’s on-loan midfielder Gurraine N’Daw who has played his whole career in Europe most notably in France for Saint-Etienne and Sochaux in Lique 1.
N’Daw is by no-mean’s a Patrick Vieira in midfield but he has impressed for Birmingham since arriving in August, enough for Chris Hughton to extend his loan-deal which had been due to expire in January until the end of the season.
So you’re probably asking yourself, why am I reading an article about N’Daw who has the same chance of playing for Manchester United as Emile Heskey does of winning the golden boot this season.
The answer is, because a mate of mine who watches Crystal Palace regularly came back raving about him after the Eagles beat City 1-0 at Selhurst Park in December.
He was adamant that N’Daw had the talent and physical build to make it at a top-6 side in the Premier League and foolishly uttered the following words:
‘I don’t think he’d a bad option for United’
When I heard those words, I couldn’t believe my ears. Having seen N’Daw play a few times this season in televised Championship and Europa League games, he is by no means a bad player but there’s a reason why he hasn’t made it at a big club.
He just isn’t good enough to play for a top Premier League side. That’s not to say that he won’t play in the top-flight in England, as even if Birmingham don’t get promoted, a mid-table team like Norwich or Bolton (if the duo stay up) could do no worse than sign him.
Thinking about it though, opinion in football is an intriguing subject and it’s interesting listening to a wide selection of football fans seeing which players they rate and don’t rate whilst thinking about the thought-process that’s gone into that opinion.
Over the years every football fan can admit to making mistakes when it comes to judging players. I thought foolishly that David Silva would struggle in England when he was breaking through at Valencia 3-4 years ago and look what he’s done at Manchester City.
That was probably as stupid an opinion as my Palace mate had when thinking that N’Daw could be good for United, as I thought that Silva wouldn’t be able to deal with the physicality of English football when it looks as he’s been destined for it. Opinions hey?
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
I know a guy who thought Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson and Taibi were good enough for United and what's worse is he backed it with real money. Nutter huh!
Imagine that plus Remi Moses, Darren Ferguson, Darron Gibson, Macheda, Owen, Veron, and De Gea….where am I going with this ?