By Daily Sports on March 2, 2017

Some months ago players’ agent, Obinna Emelogu, spoke with me on the phone from his Houston, USA, base about his desire to have young and extremely talented players from Nigeria under the management of his sports management company.

He emphasised the reason why he wants players of a certain young age by explaining that older players who usually come to Europe, courtesy of players’ agents, are likely to lose their motivation to work harder in the game once they get a contract from clubs. According to him, complacency and a sense of entitlement creep in when they start getting pay checks and, added to the age factor, these older players find it hard to push themselves in the training ground and, needless to say, their road to stopping their football career is hastened.

Thousands of grassroots players train extremely hard every day and pray even harder to be able to do well in a local state or national competition so they can be spotted by scouts and agents and then taken to a foreign club on trials and then get a lucrative contract.

At each level of accomplishment, it is not rare to see some players easing off their hitting the gym or refraining from extra sprint work to improve their speed level or refusing to go on endurance building exercises.

A club scout or agent spots a player, invites him to a club and he thinks he’s a superstar already for being spotted alone.

He gets a contract in Europe because of his undoubted skills and he, in his mind, has nothing more to accomplish.

Yes, the players might have stumbled into heavy riches, but he has to realise that true great players are the ones who, after hitting a sporting target, switch back on to the next challenge. There’s simply no limit to what is achievable. That should be the mindset.

That brings us to reigning English Premier League champions, Leicester City. Last season the players, encouraged by a bright start to the season, showed every week the stuffs that champions are made of. Gutsiness, togetherness, a sense of collective will to win all added to their skills and hunger to make history. The result was an unstoppable and improbable rough to the title.

But after free BMW cars were dished out to the players at the end of the successful season and movie deals started arriving, what we are seeing of the City lads is a shadow of their last season selves.

The players’ hunger seem to have collectively dropped and their manager, the likeable gentleman, Claudio Ramieri has been made to bear the brunt, after the players reportedly revolted against him.

To the Leicester players, there couldn’t be anything wrong with their talents. Subconsciously, they believed in the hype of their abilities. They felt if they were good enough last season, that entitles them to succeed this season. They lost that sense of fear for failure, and when that happens, failure is mostly guaranteed.

Even if the Leicester players are not mature enough to claim responsibility for their failure, one player whose team is under fire for their performances recently has acted maturely by saying he and his team mates have let their coach down. That player is Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey. As Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal Manager continues to be criticised for the team's slip on form, Ramsey has had the humility to assert that the Arsenal players must take responsibility for their team’s struggles.

Young grassroots players must look at the above scenarios and learn useful lessons from them. Keep working hard, no matter what you've achieved and don't be quick to blame others for your failure.  The future is always there for young players to create the way they like.

Source Daily Sports

Posted March 2, 2017

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