Newcastle in for Iheanacho

[HankMarvin]

2 hours ago, Sly said:

So N’Didi was booted out of an U17 competition in 2015 ....... how old is he then?!? 

he said in an interview he used to lift a lot of heavy bags and was partial to handstands as a youngster.

Edited 14 August 2020 by HankMarvin

[Fightforever]

10 hours ago, Sly said:

So N’Didi was booted out of an U17 competition in 2015 ....... how old is he then?!? 

We don't know but him being 17 at the time of testing is doubtful

Edited 14 August 2020 by Fightforever

[Mawuli]

Here in Africa there's abit of a practice of reducing your age by quite abit to prolong your football career, everyone here thinks ndidi is at least in his mid twenties

[Ric Flair]

50 minutes ago, Mawuli said:

Here in Africa there's abit of a practice of reducing your age by quite abit to prolong your football career, everyone here thinks ndidi is at least in his mid twenties

One way to measure how true this is likely to be is compare African players still competing at the top in their " early 30's " compared to that of non-African players. Obviously the comparison will need to be measured based on the same ratio of African players to non-African playing throughout the top leagues.

 

 

[ronnup]

Him and Wilf are proper bezzy mates innit. If it means Wilf stays around then Kelechi can stay as long as he wants for me. 

Edited 14 August 2020 by ronnup
Mistake

[surrifox]

2 hours ago, majaco said:

So... Ihenacho isn't going to Newcastle?

Ssssh - this is for Wilf based stuff 

[Leeds Fox]

1 hour ago, Mawuli said:

Here in Africa there's abit of a practice of reducing your age by quite abit to prolong your football career, everyone here thinks ndidi is at least in his mid twenties

I thought it was to make the players more valuable at a young age. A supposed 17 year old performing at the level of a 22 year old (their real age) would make a player worth a lot more. 

[Babylon]

14 hours ago, NaijaFox said:

I can predict that you would be a year older next year, I don't think that's what an MRI screening is used to determine. 

 

First, you cannot really test age, so regurgitating the colloquial language of journalist does not lend any more veracity 9nor credibility), but the fact that even you concedes that it is at best susceptible to a 1% FAILURE (and frankly that's questionable data) means that it is UNRELIABLE to determine EVERYONE's age. What's true for the general is not necessarily so for the particular. 

Again you can try and argue semantics all you want, but they use it as a way of determining the likely age of the player.

 

You can ague it's not accurate, it's 99+% accurate.

 

If three players from the same squad fail it, then it's highly likely they are up to something fishy. 

 

If the numbers jump 35% in a tournament, compared to the baseline test carried out before hand, it's likely there is something fishy going on in the tournament. 

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Mawuli said:

Here in Africa there's abit of a practice of reducing your age by quite abit to prolong your football career, everyone here thinks ndidi is at least in his mid twenties

Don't say that to @NaijaFox 

[Nicolo Barella]

It's plausible that Ndidi is older than he says, but his continued development this year and the last would suggest that he isn't, uncommon for a player to continue to improve their game past 24 or so. Notable exceptions including the likes of Salah and Mané.

[Raw Dykes]

12 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

It's plausible that Ndidi is older than he says, but his continued development this year and the last would suggest that he isn't, uncommon for a player to continue to improve their game past 24 or so. Notable exceptions including the likes of Salah and Mané.

Vardy?

[Neutral]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

Again you can try and argue semantics all you want, but they use it as a way of determining the likely age of the player.

 

You can ague it's not accurate, it's 99+% accurate.

 

If three players from the same squad fail it, then it's highly likely they are up to something fishy. 

 

If the numbers jump 35% in a tournament, compared to the baseline test carried out before hand, it's likely there is something fishy going on in the tournament. 

Respectfully, this is not really the way things work in Nigeria with the test. It has flaws, but since 2013 it is used as the sole arbiter, simply because there is not faith in the public records. So, at each stage of U-17 competition, players are tested and those who don't meet requirements are tossed, ending with the World Cup. This leaves all types of room for false positive and false negatives, but is better than the wild west of yesteryear, as evidenced by the actual club success of the 2013 and 15 WC sides, compared the previous youth titlists whose best players tended to disappear.

 

Ndidi was part of the 2013 set, along with Kelechi, who won the World Cup. These players had been together for years. He did not just show up at the African Youth Cup and fail. Frankly, if things were done that way, many more players would have failed at that time. He passed the tests throughout qualifiers, which is why he was a part of the team in the first place. So, he passed several tests before failing, which would lead one to conclude that he was either a false positive or aged out during the process. Either way, he is not going to be significantly older than he says. The boy is not an age cheat, and it's unfair to call him that.

 

Funny enough, one of the people that failed at that time was a born and bred American with Nigerian heritage, who was obviously the age he said. The system sort of is what it is until the country can have an adequate system of record.

[Nicolo Barella]

25 minutes ago, Raw Dykes said:

Vardy?

Sometimes we overlook that which is under our nose.

[MPH]

1 hour ago, Nicolo Barella said:

It's plausible that Ndidi is older than he says, but his continued development this year and the last would suggest that he isn't, uncommon for a player to continue to improve their game past 24 or so. Notable exceptions including the likes of Salah and Mané.

  

And Vardy?

[MPH]

Yakubu was still improving into his 50s...

[NaijaFox]

10 hours ago, Mawuli said:

Here in Africa there's abit of a practice of reducing your age by quite abit to prolong your football career, everyone here thinks ndidi is at least in his mid twenties

 

8 hours ago, Babylon said:

Don't say that to @NaijaFox 

Well, the assertion of an anonymous poster who just registered settles it. 

 

Dude, I made it CLEAR in my post that age fraud exists in Africa (as well as South America, North America (especially Mexico), and Asia), but that (1) a MRI screening is not an age test and is susceptible to false positives (and there is ample scientific data and scholarly work to that effect), and (2) what’s true of the general is not necessarily true of the particular. Anyway, like I previously noted, FT is not really the forum to do justice to the subject matter. It is more properly suited to the sorts of one-liners that @Babylon spouted above.

 

Have a good weekend folks. 

 

Edited 14 August 2020 by NaijaFox

[NaijaFox]

[double post]

Edited 14 August 2020 by NaijaFox

[NaijaFox]

6 hours ago, Neutral said:

Respectfully, this is not really the way things work in Nigeria with the test. It has flaws, but since 2013 it is used as the sole arbiter, simply because there is not faith in the public records. So, at each stage of U-17 competition, players are tested and those who don't meet requirements are tossed, ending with the World Cup. This leaves all types of room for false positive and false negatives, but is better than the wild west of yesteryear, as evidenced by the actual club success of the 2013 and 15 WC sides, compared the previous youth titlists whose best players tended to disappear.

 

Ndidi was part of the 2013 set, along with Kelechi, who won the World Cup. These players had been together for years. He did not just show up at the African Youth Cup and fail. Frankly, if things were done that way, many more players would have failed at that time. He passed the tests throughout qualifiers, which is why he was a part of the team in the first place. So, he passed several tests before failing, which would lead one to conclude that he was either a false positive or aged out during the process. Either way, he is not going to be significantly older than he says. The boy is not an age cheat, and it's unfair to call him that.

 

Funny enough, one of the people that failed at that time was a born and bred American with Nigerian heritage, who was obviously the age he said. The system sort of is what it is until the country can have an adequate system of record.

Thanks. Someone obviously closer to the African/Nigerian situation than we are.

 

As previously noted, MRI screening is a COMPROMISE that acknowledges there could/would be false positives.
 

Edited 14 August 2020 by NaijaFox

[Nicolo Barella]

5 hours ago, NaijaFox said:

Well, the assertion of an anonymous poster who just registered settles it. 

 

5 hours ago, NaijaFox said:

Thanks. Someone obviously closer to the African/Nigerian situation than we are.

Whilst I agree with you, I will admit I found this a little funny

[Leeds Fox]

12 hours ago, Nicolo Barella said:

It's plausible that Ndidi is older than he says, but his continued development this year and the last would suggest that he isn't, uncommon for a player to continue to improve their game past 24 or so. Notable exceptions including the likes of Salah and Mané.

Depending on the quality of coaching it’s possible to develop. Rodgers could quite possibly be exactly what N’Didi needed from a coach to help him develop. 

[Nicolo Barella]

1 minute ago, Leeds Fox said:

Depending on the quality of coaching it’s possible to develop. Rodgers could quite possibly be exactly what N’Didi needed from a coach to help him develop. 

Very true, which is why I only said its uncommon, and stressed that it is plausible that Ndidi is older than he says.

[Strokes]

On 15/08/2020 at 02:22, Nicolo Barella said:

Very true, which is why I only said its uncommon, and stressed that it is plausible that Ndidi is older than he says.

He may be older than he knows.

Nobody remembers their date of birth, they are told it.

[HighPeakFox]

23 minutes ago, Strokes said:

He may be older than he knows.

Nobody remembers their date of birth, they are told it.

A very good, and underrated point.

[Nicolo Barella]

38 minutes ago, Strokes said:

He may be older than he knows.

Nobody remembers their date of birth, they are told it.

I agree, doesn't really change my point though

[Strokes]

31 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

I agree, doesn't really change my point though

No not at all, I was just making my own.