Caleb Okoli

[CosbehFox]

An absolute terrible signing. Zero redeeming performances. No doubt on wages that an Italian club wouldn't touch him. It only took his debut to go yeah he ain't the one. By comparison, we could have had someone perfectly serviceable like Dara O'Shea that summer whom is now captain of Ipswich and doing a reasonable job. 

Edited 2 March by CosbehFox

[Tommy Fresh]

16 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

An absolute terrible signing. Zero redeeming performances. No doubt on wages that an Italian club wouldn't touch him. It only took his debut to go yeah he ain't the one. By comparison, we could have had someone perfectly serviceable like Jay O'Shea that summer whom is now captain of Ipswich and doing a reasonable job. 

Wrong O'Shea but I'd actually rather have Jay O'Shea as well

Edited 2 March by Tommy Fresh

[Finnegan]

On 01/03/2026 at 06:06, Dan said:

Amartey was streets ahead of this bloke.

 

He was not

 

That's not a defence of Okoli btw. They're both awful. 

 

[Mapperleyfox]

I can't work out whether he's a half decent player in wretched form and low on confidence or that he's a total liability. Either way, he's directly cost us two goals in the last two games alone and, if we can, he needs dropping for his own good. Whether he turns out to be any good for us or anyone else i'm not sure...

[Sol thewall Bamba]

23 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

He was not

 

That's not a defence of Okoli btw. They're both awful. 

 

I would have put good money on Amartey looking better in the Championship than Okoli has done. Low bar but that's where we are as a club nowadays. 

[Mike Oxlong]

ie la bolock

[Dan]

5 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

He was not

 

That's not a defence of Okoli btw. They're both awful. 

 

Amartey wasn't good but he was comfortably better than Okoli. Amartey never quite served this up in the Championship.

Edited 2 March by Dan

[Sly]

16 hours ago, Dan said:

Amartey wasn't good but he was comfortably better than Okoli. Amartey never quite served this up in the Championship.

Amartey didn’t play in the Championship?
 

He‘s also not had a club since Besiktas released him in 2024. He’s still only 31.

 

They’re both as bad as each other.  

[Tielemans63]

I assume the club decided they would need a stronger, more physical centre back last season, so they brought in Caleb. It's as though they have literally looked at his physical stature and thought 'he'll do' and not looked at any of the other facets of his game. Surely a proper scouting report would have picked up on his poor technique, lack of positional sense, non-existent passing and regular lapses in concentration.

 

It's like they filtered off "Strength - 20" on FM and bought the first player that came up. A player that no-one else was in for, I hasten to add.

[funkyrobot]

1 hour ago, Sly said:

Amartey didn’t play in the Championship?
 

He‘s also not had a club since Besiktas released him in 2024. He’s still only 31.

 

They’re both as bad as each other.  

Amartey played as a midfielder before he signed for us. He was error prone at centre back but was a better footballer than Okoli. The only player I’ve seen in a LCFC shirt with worst ability on the ball than Okoli in recent years is Patson Daka. How either player managed to become top league professional footballers in a system where only a very tiny percentage of very capable footballers even make the professional grade is mind boggling. 

[Sly]

Just now, funkyrobot said:

Amartey played as a midfielder before he signed for us. He was error prone at centre back but was a better footballer than Okoli. The only player I’ve seen in a LCFC shirt with worst ability on the ball than Okoli in recent years is Patson Daka. How either player managed to become top league professional footballers in a system where only a very tiny percentage of very capable footballers even make the professional grade is mind boggling. 

Daka at Salzburg was viewed as a major prospect. 
 

Quick, could finish, aggressive etc. I could see why we purchased him.

 

Atlanta were bemused when we spent so much on Okoli.

 

If we were old school, 4-4-2 with a compact defence and smash it long on the counter attack, he’d maybe do a job. That’s not modern football though. 
 

Agree that Amartey was signed as a midfielder. He was very average though, hence why we rolled th dice on Ndidi and we got the Kante replacement at the 3rd attempt after Mendy and Amartey flopped. 
 

 

[lcfc sheff]

He is so so bad on the ball, has he never been coached??

[Hales]

Much better tonight, no messing around at the back and clearing his lines. Well done Caleb 

[brookfox]

He provided a good foil for Nelson and between them put in our best CB pairing game of the season. Blocked and cleared loads with Nelson being the one to bring it out more. Thought he had one of his best games for us.

[Swarles Barkley]

I’ve started playing a game where I try to guess where the ball will go when Okoli has it. I had 0 success last night

[Aleksz]

Still god awful with the ball, but credit to him defensively it was probably one of his best performances last night. 

[FLAN]

This guy is obviously banned from seagrave. No way he’s in there Monday to Friday with a football 

[MGLCFC]

Thought he did fine last night. Have to accept he's poor on the ball, but his defending complemented Nelson last night. Best he's played for 90 minutes this season.

[Buzzell]

A better performance from him for sure but still needs to improve. There’s moments where he has brain farts and gives the ball away when he could just play it simple.

[davieG]

3 minutes ago, Buzzell said:

A better performance from him for sure but still needs to improve. There’s moments where he has brain farts and gives the ball away when he could just play it simple.

There's a few that do that Ricardo, Mav, Bobby, Daka, Fats

It's so much more noticeable and threatening to the team when it's a CB with everyone is up field or on their way.

[Stuntman_Mike]

He's so confusing.

 

Last night he launched the ball straight out of play or back to the opposition when he had an age on the ball, yet he loves getting caught in possession when he is being pressured. It doesn't make sense. 

 

[Dunge]

It looked to me last night like Rowett’s just told him to go Full Huth - no obligation on the ball, play safe, concentrate entirely on defending and clear your lines. It’s probably the best thing for him.

[Big_Nige]

49 minutes ago, Dunge said:

It looked to me last night like Rowett’s just told him to go Full Huth - no obligation on the ball, play safe, concentrate entirely on defending and clear your lines. It’s probably the best thing for him.

It was quite noticeable he didn’t play a ball into the centre of midfield once. It was like he was only allowed to go square to Nelson, or wide to Hamza or Fatawu. He looked a better player because of it

[Stadt]

34 minutes ago, Big_Nige said:

It was quite noticeable he didn’t play a ball into the centre of midfield once. It was like he was only allowed to go square to Nelson, or wide to Hamza or Fatawu. He looked a better player because of it

I think sides will cotton onto targeting our RHS if we persist with Okoli and Choudhury - very little ability to progress the ball there 

[fazzyfox]

11 hours ago, Swarles Barkley said:

I’ve started playing a game where I try to guess where the ball will go when Okoli has it. I had 0 success last night

Hi Ben Nelson, welcome to the forum!

It’s like one of those coin drop machines in the arcades, you want it to go straight down and land behind a stack of coins but instead it flys off left and disappears down a shaft at the side .