Kelechi Iheanacho

BobbyManc

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A youth player at City being given a chance is surely worth a thread in itself. The guy has been incredible for City and has surpassed even my high expectations. He fits into the team effortlessly and it's hard to believe this is his first ever season playing professional football domestically. He's already won us six points in the league while in the cups he has impressed hugely. He has averaged a goal or assist every 44 minutes this season. He's physically impressive, possesses incredible composure, the instincts of a poacher, great vision, pace and dribbling. On top of that he's very humble and down to earth so there does not seem to be any danger of off-the-pitch distractions.



As far as I'm concerned he's one the most exciting youngsters in European football right now. What are the opinions of him on here from those who've had the opportunity to see him play before?
 
Looks a great talent, for sure. He's big and powerful but also very assured on the ball and has good composure in front of goal. Surprised no one starterd a thread on him sooner, to be honest.
 
He's scored some crucial goals this season. Scored the goal in injury time when City beat Palace 1-0 and also scored the winner (albeit it was a Toure deflected shot) against another team who I can't remember at the moment. Got a good record as well this season 8 goals in 16 games. Looks like a bright talent.
 
BobbyManc said:
A youth player at City being given a chance is surely worth a thread in itself. The guy has been incredible for City and has surpassed even my high expectations. He fits into the team effortlessly and it's hard to believe this is his first ever season playing professional football domestically. He's already won us six points in the league while in the cups he has impressed hugely. He has averaged a goal or assist every 44 minutes this season. He's physically impressive, possesses incredible composure, the instincts of a poacher, great vision, pace and dribbling. On top of that he's very humble and down to earth so there does not seem to be any danger of off-the-pitch distractions.



As far as I'm concerned he's one the most exciting youngsters in European football right now. What are the opinions of him on here from those who've had the opportunity to see him play before?
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Wow, that's really impressive.
 
You guys signed him at 17 so I won't say he's a youth product. Like the look of him and I think he wil, be a top player. Said it since he was exceptional for us at the U17 World Cup. He has it. We haven't seen anything of him in the national team because we are so shite and poorly run at the minute
The problem for City with him is that he has a lot of agents. That can always get problematic.
 
He signed at 18, you can't sign non-EU players until they are 18. He was about 18 and a half by the time he could play for City.

First saw him last season in the u21s where he scored a brace against us. Great talent and has made the step up well.
 
Can't comment much. I saw him in both games he scored and he barely touched the ball in those games. Both goals similar tap-ins after one team being desperate to score and the other desperate to defend. Seems to have played well in the Cups but City have also played above average in the cups. Outside the Everton LC games where he didn't play they've scored 20 goals in 5 games.

Only 1 year age difference between him and Martial which people will naturally compare him to.

duffer said:
Which club did he learn his trade at? He was 17/18 when City signed him AFAIK.
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Been about 2 years at City so he must have learned something. Personally I think a player learns a lot more between the ages of 16-21 than he does up til that point. Until then you're mostly training the basics again and again and separating yourself from the rest as the more natural talent. At 16-17 you get to the academy and that's where the real test begins. More often than not you move away from your family and friends so you've got to deal with that. Sometimes it will be to a different country so you might have to learn a new language. Without knowing it I'd hazard a guess that he's a much better player now than he was when he joined.
 
Damien said:
Yeah, there's a comparison thread in the newbies which hasn't really gone down well
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Hope it doesn't go the way of Sterling v Januzaj or Welbeck v Sturridge. Think it's a stupid comparison tbh. Kelechi is more of a pure striker than Martial who I think will play on the left for a couple of years.
 
Haven't seen a lot of him but his stats for such a young kid with a fairly small amount of game time is pretty great. I remember that U21 game too, think he had a flashy solo goal in that match.
 
He has done well but he has scored in games against lower opposition with a team that creates chance after chance. I haven't seen him do anything against any of the top clubs (I may be mistaken).
 
He can move ahead of Bony in the pecking order and probably should have been given more minutes then he has so far.
 
He's special.Can't really compare him and Martial though.It's like comparing 19 years old Drogba and Henry.What's the point?
 
Snow said:
Been about 2 years at City so he must have learned something. Personally I think a player learns a lot more between the ages of 16-21 than he does up til that point. Until then you're mostly training the basics again and again and separating yourself from the rest as the more natural talent. At 16-17 you get to the academy and that's where the real test begins. More often than not you move away from your family and friends so you've got to deal with that. Sometimes it will be to a different country so you might have to learn a new language. Without knowing it I'd hazard a guess that he's a much better player now than he was when he joined.
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I don't doubt that he's learned a lot at City, I was just wondering where he came from. He was 18 when they signed him (17 when he agreed to join but couldn't sign) so he must have done an awful lot of developing at another club.
 
duffer said:
I don't doubt that he's learned a lot at City, I was just wondering where he came from. He was 18 when they signed him (17 when he agreed to join but couldn't sign) so he must have done an awful lot of developing at another club.
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Came from an Academy in Nigeria, spotted by everyone at U-17 WC.
 
duffer said:
I don't doubt that he's learned a lot at City, I was just wondering where he came from. He was 18 when they signed him (17 when he agreed to join but couldn't sign) so he must have done an awful lot of developing at another club.
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He was in the biggest Nigerian youth academy. I can't remember the name, will find out
He has improved massively and I'm sure it's because he's training and playing with top class players.
 
Adisa said:
You guys signed him at 17 so I won't say he's a youth product. Like the look of him and I think he wil, be a top player. Said it since he was exceptional for us at the U17 World Cup. He has it. We haven't seen anything of him in the national team because we are so shite and poorly run at the minute
The problem for City with him is that he has a lot of agents. That can always get problematic.
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Yeah I'm not disputing that he is a youth product of City, but at the same time we've obviously played an important role in his development. As for the U-17 World Cup I read that he played primarily on the LW, and he definitely deserves some minutes there for City I feel in the games where Sterling is struggling to get involved. With his height he could be a useful option making runs into the box from a wide position I feel.

I've read about his agents too, contract talks with him are apparently on hold due to a dispute between agents over who has rights over him. Hopefully that gets sorted sooner than later.
 
Adisa said:
He was in the biggest Nigerian youth academy. I can't remember the name, will find out
He has improved massively and I'm sure it's because he's training and playing with top class players.
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Must be somewhat exciting for you as a Nigerian seeing Iheanacho and (to a lesser extent) Iwobi impressing at the biggest sides in the league.
 
BobbyManc said:
Yeah I'm not disputing that he is a youth product of City, but at the same time we've obviously played an important role in his development. As for the U-17 World Cup I read that he played primarily on the LW, and he definitely deserves some minutes there for City I feel in the games where Sterling is struggling to get involved. With his height he could be a useful option making runs into the box from a wide position I feel.

I've read about his agents too, contract talks with him are apparently on hold due to a dispute between agents over who has rights over him. Hopefully that gets sorted sooner than later.
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Great talent u seemingly have on your books Bobby.

It's going to be difficult to phase him in though. With your wealth of attacking talent, who are mostly still at a good age!
 
O
DWelbz19 said:
Must be somewhat exciting for you as a Nigerian seeing Iheanacho and (to a lesser extent) Iwobi impressing at the biggest sides in the league.
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im excited naturally but I fear the way our football is run will feck it all up. No planning, no vision, no exection just corruption.
 
Nigerian?

Not bad for a 28 year old.
am I the first?
 
prarek said:
Doing very well. Bright future i think.


Ouch. Thought he was a product of their academy.
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If the player doesn't hold a EU passport you can almost guarantee that he doesn't come from an academy in England.
 
BobbyManc said:
Yeah I'm not disputing that he is a youth product of City, but at the same time we've obviously played an important role in his development. As for the U-17 World Cup I read that he played primarily on the LW, and he definitely deserves some minutes there for City I feel in the games where Sterling is struggling to get involved. With his height he could be a useful option making runs into the box from a wide position I feel.

I've read about his agents too, contract talks with him are apparently on hold due to a dispute between agents over who has rights over him. Hopefully that gets sorted sooner than later.
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I saw him playing at the u17 World Cup and even though he finished top scorer he looked like he'd end up as more of a creative 2nd striker. I'm impressed with how much of a poachers instinct he seems to have developed while at City and how much he's developed physically in that time as well since he looked really light weight at the u17 World Cup
 
ThierryHenry said:
Hasn't gone well for who? Iheanacho has the same goals in less games this season. white text
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Not disputing his talent but he has only scored against weak opposition so far. Martial is a different player, he is as much a creator as a striker. Martial has also impressed against the better sides in the league and has won himself a place in one of the best international sides in the world.

Always worth seeing this again

 
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paulscholes18 said:
Looks very good, should loan him out where he will play week in week out
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Disagree on this, I think he should be getting enough time for City right now, given how many games we play - he's that good. He fits our system perfectly, much more so than Bony, and has looked nothing but impressive in all 613 minutes he's played this season. We should keep him training with top class players every week and get him working within our own system, especially if Pep comes.

You can see on the pitch that Silva and Aguero like to give him the ball, they obviously trust him and to his credit he just seems to make things happen around him. His biggest downside is he's such an easy head to drop because he doesn't carry the price tag, when in reality he should be playing more than he is already.
 
Loaning him would be daft. Suits them better than Bony does.
 
BobbyManc said:
He's already won us six points in the league while in the cups he has impressed hugely.
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I remember the game against Palace. He scored at the final minutes or extra time when the score was 0-0. So shouldn't that be counted as 2 extra points and not 3 points as 1 point was most probably the case at that point? If the goal was score much earlier then it would have counted as 3 points as it influences the game pattern from there on.

Does that make sense?
 
Sb_16 said:
I remember the game against Palace. He scored at the final minutes or extra time when the score was 0-0. So shouldn't that be counted as 2 extra points and not 3 points as 1 point was most probably the case at that point? If the goal was score much earlier then it would have counted as 3 points as it influences the game pattern from there on.

Does that make sense?
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I see what you're saying but if a player scores a winning goal you'd typically say he's won you the three points, it would be a bit pedantic to say he possibly only secured two extra points as the game otherwise would likely have finished a draw. Iheanacho's goal meant City left the game with three points from a situation where it was not impossible we left with none.
 
He was men among boys in some u-17 world cup.
 
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