Oduwa was named MotM after Rangers' 5-0 win over Raith, with two assists and also won a penalty The commentators chuckling as he goes through the Raith defence for the penalty was more than a little unkind...
It's not often that you hear someone giggling like a schoolgirl while watching football, let alone a commentator. Not sure how much he can be learning by mugging off players that appear to be several levels below his, though. He seems happy with the loan, to be fair: Ball didn't feature in this one, only making the bench and his introduction wasn't needed. Raith only managed one shot, apparently.
Granted the second tier north of the border resembles a school sports day, but the kid clearly has some nifty footwork and a good footballing brain. I've always felt that we're better off sending out youngsters to good teams a tier below the PL such as Brentford rather than a PL team who are likely to be sucked into a relegation battle, such as Townsend to QPR and most recently Yedlin to Sunderland. The latter method runs the risk of destroying the player's confidence completely. True, they'll always have the safety net of 'my future isn't tied down here', but living and playing in such a downcast and toxic atmosphere, probably facing the wrath of fans at every moment as 'the loanee who doesn't give a toss' etc. cannot be healthy for a player's psychological development.
As ever, different players suit different loan destinations. Some will thrive in an environment where they can stand out a bit at a slightly lower level, like Oduwa seems to be at Rangers, whereas some will really suit the relegation battles and come to life in those situations when the chips are really down and the challenge is a little more immediately real. Where Rangers seems to be working for Oduwa so far is that it is a level of football where he is challenged to improve but can still express himself, and he'll benefit from the physical experience and playing in front of the Rangers fans where the pressure comes from the expectation that they will be promoted this season. Plus Warburton seems to know how to play good football and develop young players, which is excellent for our lads there.
Seems he's already made quite the impression on the Rangers fanbase: http://www.ibroxnoise.co.uk/2015/09/can-rangers-hold-onto-nathan-oduwa.html
I think loan moves are tricky to judge. There's no one rule for the type of club that will help develop them but you just want to make sure they're playing regularly and preferably in a position that suits them. Townsend did well at QPR and I think he benefitted from it. Falque joined a Southampton side pushing for promotion, with a good manager who played football that suited him and yet he hardly got a kick because their line up was already well established. Time will tell whether this loan helps Oduwa break through with us, he's certainly having a great time and playing for a great manager out there so hopefully he'll come back a better player, with more experience and confidence.
Oduwa is a breath of fresh air.Here's a kid who loves his football, he has a permasmile whenever you see him. There is no doubting his skill either. Things are going well for him up here. True, the quality of opposition is not the best but his confidence at the moment is sky high. Let's hope that continues through the winter and no clogger does him. If he get's through this season intact, Spurs will have a more experienced, stronger, confident player for the start of next season. And hopefully there's another gem in your academy that would like a punt at the Scottish premiership next season.
Yeah, especially since in all liklihood you'll be going up next season. If you'd asked Spurs fans a few months ago Oduwa probably wouldn't have made a top 10 of our best prospects so there's plenty coming through our academy at the moment, we really seem to have struck gold with this new training centre. The cloning facility is coming in handy as well, how about we send you Bale Mk 2 please log in to view this image
I think we're getting into piss-taking territory here: http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/10132-nath-looking-for-goals
Oduwa with another useful contribution yesterday, providing the cross for Rangers' 90th minute winner: Ball played the full game. Oduwa came off the bench on the hour. Warburton's side have now won all 10 of their league games, though they did lose in the League Cup.
Anyone see the treatment Oduwa was getting last night? He had to be subbed because of several knocks due to naughty challenges in the game. He's a marked man and the refs don't seem to give him any protection.
Warburton wasn't happy with the treatment of Oduwa in their 1-0 win over Livingston last night. Haven't seen any of the challenges but apparently he got studded on the ankle early on and got elbowed in the head later and had to go off at half time.
you do realise it's the second tier of Scottish football, and there's only 1 decent team in it? It's like Barcelona's first XI playing in the spanish 2nd division.
It was a disgrace. Hatchet job in the first twenty seconds of the match that desereved a red card. He got the treatment all through the first half and didn't come out for the second. Seemingly he is now injured and will be out for a few weeks. Ball played another 90 minutes and did well.
There should still be protection from the ref. Doing some one in the first minutes of a game is hammer thrower 101. "I'll do him early and the ref won't book me" Even at that level refs should be aware of that old chessnut.
A couple of slow motion replays: Gruesome stuff. Very cynical attempts to put him out of the game and right in front of the ref, too. I hesitate to call this bloke one of Oduwa's fellow professionals, but Berwick Rangers striker Andy Russell tweeted this: please log in to view this image He then got called on it by a variety of people, deleted a bunch of messages and then set his account to private. Like a big man. You'd think that he'd have a better understanding of it, playing for an English club. There's been some vaguely nationalistic bullshit claiming that Oduwa's taking the piss and wouldn't do it in England. Funny really, as he already has: It's the way that he plays. He's skillful, runs at people and tries to make things happen. That's what people pay good money to watch, FFS.
Bit of a side-note, but if anyone saw that the ref was called Dallas and thought it was familiar, that blind ****bag was the son of Hugh Dallas. Probably not a good idea to have anyone in that family involved with games concerning the Old Firm, given their history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Dallas#Celtic_v_Rangers.2C_May_1999
The fact that he thinks Oduwa would "come up" to Berwick from Glasgow would suggest that the fella Is a moron.
