In the third round of the African Cup of Nations group stage, Nigeria defeated Guinea-Bissau 2-0 and then advanced with a record of three wins. Looking back at this game, Manchester City's veteran Ishinacho played well again, and it was his assists that helped Nigeria take the lead. There is a way that you are not afraid of comparing goods with goods, and you are afraid of people comparing people. And former Manchester City prince Isina Jobi, former Arsenal prince Iwobi's play is difficult to say. With no sense of existence at both ends of the attack and defense, he once again got the lowest rating of the whole team. Seeing this, Arsenal fans secretly rejoiced: fortunately, Emery was determined to sell Iwobi and earned 40 million pounds!
It all started six years ago. Iwobi, who was only 19 years old at the time, won the favor of manager Wenger and was promoted to arsenal team. With his outstanding foot skills and physical fitness, he gradually became a regular rotation within the team. To be fair, Iwobi had a lot of brilliant performances during this period, but the overall performance was too bad. Tracing back to the source, it is because his ball quotient is not high, and he will only blindly do it, and he cannot form a cooperation with other teammates.
Considering Iwo was younger than he was at the time, Arsenal fans were patient with him, believing that he would be able to get away with Wenger's careful tuning sooner or later. Unfortunately, this day has never been expected, and Iwobi has only been bored with the ball for several consecutive seasons, completely outside arsenal's offensive system. His ability is not up to the level of breaking the opponent's defense with his own strength, so that he has repeatedly become an offensive terminator. Over time, impatient Arsenal fans began to complain, and some of them even denounced Iwobi as Wenger's "dry son".
With Wenger voluntarily stepping down, Emery became Arsenal's new manager. At the beginning of his tenure, Emery intended to continue to cultivate Iwobi, thus giving him a lot of opportunities to play. However, under the tutelage of the two managers, Iwobi still did not grow at all. Emery, who saw it in his eyes, finally decided to sell Iwobi. Seeing this, Premier League powerhouse Everton threw an olive branch. After negotiations between the two clubs, Iwobi switched to Everton for £40 million.
In hindsight, Emery's decision was quite wise. Iwobi, who moved to Everton, remained mediocre and often a ghost. For example, this season, 15 appearances in all competitions have only scored 1 goal and 1 assist, which is obviously sorry for Everton's £40 million investment. Coincidentally, the British media "The Sun" and the famous Premier League commentator Zhan Jun both rated Iwobi as the worst reinforcement in the Premier League that season.
That's true for clubs, and it's true for national teams. Iwobi, who played with Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations, remains in poor shape. In the second round of the group stage against Sudan, Iwobi came on as a substitute in the second half. He was expected to continue to revitalize the attack, but he did not expect to drag Nigeria's hind legs. Because of this, Iwobi got the lowest rating of the whole team at 6.0 after the game. In the group stage against Guinea-Bissau in this round, Iwobi, who started and played the whole game, still contributed thinly, so he once again scored a super low score of 6.3, becoming the lowest score among Nigerian starters. Given the lower fault tolerance rate in the following knockout rounds, the poor-performing Iwobi is likely to be reduced to a substitute.
Seeing this, Arsenal fans are very emotional. Iwobi, who had just been promoted by Wenger that year, had filled his fans with expectations that he would be the core of the attack for the next decade. Who would have thought that a few years had passed and everyone had disappeared. The only good thing is that Emery decisively sold Iwobi, at least allowing Arsenal to earn a lot of money. Otherwise, now you're worried!